


Escape

by xpurplewolfx



Category: 30 Seconds to Mars, My Chemical Romance, Paramore
Genre: Danger, Fantasy, Gen, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-05
Updated: 2012-10-05
Packaged: 2017-11-15 17:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 41,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/529722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xpurplewolfx/pseuds/xpurplewolfx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jared Leto goes missing, Shannon does everything to try and find him. However, things are not all as they seem, and what's all this about vampires? Also with My Chemical Romance, Hayley Williams and O.C's</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in the process of being written for over a year now, it is finally finnished and I am uploading it. It originated on Deviantart so any extra info that would like can be found on my DA account: http://xpurplewolfx.deviantart.com/
> 
> It simply started with my wanting to write a fanfiction - a long one! I knew I wanted vampires and 30 seconds to mars... I didn't plan it out (as you can probably tell when you read it xD) the plot was created chapter by chapter.
> 
> This is littered with mistakes such as spelling, word-bleeding, plot holes and crap writing - especially in the earlier chapters... Hopefully I have improved over the year... I'm gonna use my dyslexia as an excuse for everything mentioned above xD
> 
> Please note that most of my 'O.Cs' are real people that I have met over DA, these charactures are: Zoe, Johnny and Lilly. Abbie is actually myself and Leah is my best friend in real life who helped with a heck of a lot of ideas and motivation =D
> 
> Anyway... Enjoy :)

The night was cool and crisp, she was alone. The orange glow of the streetlamps illuminated her face. The roar of busy traffic and the echoing barks of dogs filled her ears as she rushed across the pavement, her heels thudding on the concrete. Her long brunette hair rippled in the cold breeze as she took a shortcut down an Alleyway. She had been late home from work and was rushing to get home for the romantic meal that her boyfriend was cooking her. She took out her phone and began to daily her home number. She faltered as she placed the phone to her ear for sure that she had heard something move in the shadows, convincing herself it was a cat she continued to wait for his voice as her phone beeped.

"Zoe", she heard a familiar voice on the other end of her blackberry.

"Aspen, hi! Sorry honey I'm going to be a little late ho- OUCH!", Zoe had just tripped over high heels, causing her foot to be cut on a shard of glass on the floor.

"Zoe, are you alright?",

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just -", but the words died in zoe's mouth and were replaced with a scream as a shape that had been watching from the rooftops swooped down, pinning her to the floor.

"Zoe, what was that?... Are you okay?...Zoe!...ZOE!

The muffled voice called out from the fallen phone. She made an attempt to grab it, but the strong figure's weight made it impossible for her to move. She tried calling out, but a bare hand was placed over her mouth. She looked into cold, cruel blue eyes as the figure parted it's lips revealing unnaturally white and pointed teeth. A muffled screamcame from the girl causing a mirthless laugh to escape the inhuman mouth as it plunged it's teeth into her thin neck. Her eyes widened in shock and pain as the creature of the night devoured her blood.

It drank hungrily not caring for the life it was draining. Zoe tried to cry out again; the hand had now been removed from her face, but a sickening gurgling had replaced her voice.

"ZOE... ZOE!" The phone still screamed a few feet from her

The girl felt very weak as pain continues to engulf her. She was dying and she knew it. Her body was growing limp and as pale as death. She gave a twitch as images of her lover's face passed before her eyes. A terrible rasping sigh left her lips as she closed her eyes. Her world grew black as her conscience fell in into the growing dark abyss which had opened once the teeth pierced her flesh, never to return again.

Once the creature had drunk its fill it stood up and barley glanced at the young girl's blood soaked body as it moved back into the darkness and was swallowed by the shadows.

Nobody had witnessed the killing, no human at least. However, a scruffy black mongrel's was hidden behind a bin in the alley way. It retired from its hiding place and trotted over to the phone which it picked up in its mouth and raced of down an adjacent alley way with a sense of purpose.

The night remained still, none of the passers-by seemed to notice that a bloodied corpse lay mere meters from them. Barely ten minutes had passed since the particular dog had retrieved the phone did a new figure emerge from the black. It was male, due to it's deep breathing, and donned in the silhouette of a trench coat and a trilby hat. The same dog was at his side. He walked over to the body, which he stooped down to inspect. The man growled before speaking to his hound

"Someone's been careless tonight, Kirus... And I think I know who...", The dog looked at it's owner and parted it's lips as if grinning, revealing cruel and glistening canine teeth.

The mysterious man clicked his fingers and immediately two new figures appeared out of nowhere and scooped up Zoe's body, and with a sharp flick of his arm, indicating down the nearest alley way, they disappeared.

The Dog, kirus, Came to heel at the side of his master who gave a contemptuous smirk

"Newbie's... They never learn... But they'll have to at some point, Especially that Leto" He fixed the hat upon his head with his index finger and sauntered off after the ones whom he had summoned, his shaggy dog trotting in his wake.

The Alley way was silent once more with not one indication of the curious events which had taken place in that night. There would be no trace of the body and when the police receive a phone call from a desperate man named Aspen, there will be no evidence and Zoe Fox will become one of the many unexplained victims, one of the many who had fallen prey to the city's unknown night preditors...


	2. The Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something is very wrong with Shannon Leto's brother...

Shannon Leto was pacing his living room, frustrated and worried. It was late, how late he did not know, but it was well past midnight. Whilst he wanted nothing more than the front door to open and a potentially drunken form stumble through it, he knew that he would most likely wring his scrawny neck.

Unable to stand it any longer he reached for his phone and pressed speed dial '2'. He waited for a familiar voice to answer as he drummed his fingers on a wooded counter top.

"H - Hello...", Came an extremely groggy and tired voice, "Sh - Shannon is that y - y - you?", A shuddering yawn brought Shannon to the conclusion that he had been asleep moments earlier

"Tomo!", he called

"Shannon... It's 3 o' clock in the fucking morning... what do you want!... you are OK aren't you?... Shannon?",

"Yeah... I'm OK... look Jared isn't with you is he?", Shannon asked holding his breath, he knew that it was a long shot, but it was better than sitting there wondering

"What?... Why on earth would Jared be here! He lives with you, remember?... Have you been drinking? And speaking of that guy... I could kill him! He hasn't spoken to me for days, but I bet you he still expects me to turn up for practise tomorrow,"

"You're not the only one who hasn't spoken to him -", Shannon quickly cut off Tomo's queries, "- For five night's now he hasn't come home! And I haven't seen him in the day because he runs into his room before dawn and locks himself in it all day! Doesn't come out to eat or anything!"

"Jesus, Shann! Why on earth didn't you smash his bloody door down?"

"I would have today... except, he didn't come home at all today... I'm really worried Tome, I mean it's not as if he's simply out on the piss all night is it?",

"He could be... you never know, 'sept I'd hate to see the state he's in after five nights of getting hammered, butmaybe that's all it is, and he locks himself in his room so that you can't tell him to stop it... not that he'd listen, he didn't when we told him not to pull that stupid weight gain stunt for that film!"

"The thing is... I don't think so... I went in his room earlier and well -",

"What? What is it?", Shannon took a deep breath and closed his eye's as he remembered the state of his younger brother's room.

"Well, it looked like a wild bear had been locked it there... Everything was overturned...there was shredded paper... and blood -"

"- Blood! Are you sure!"

"...Yeah, I don't know if it's his or not... I also hear him crying most of those days... Oh, God I should have done something sooner!"

"Calm down Shann it's all right... look I'll come over now, he'll be fine, maybe it's just a crazed fan had gone into his room while you were out? In the meantime, why don't you try calling some people he could be with."

"Ok, but look, don't come over now, leave it too the morning! Look thanks Tomo, sorry it's late I just... Ah, you know how it is with that guy! I could kill him, but I love him more than anything

"I know Shann... I know...",

The friends exchanged good-bye's before hanging up. Shannon shook the tiredness from his head before he dialled another number. When the phone was answered Shannon had to hold it further from his ears; Music wasblasting, people were shouting and laughing.

"Gerard? Gerard can you hear me?", Shannon called over the ruckus

"Shannon!, how's it going?", an extremely drunk sounding Gerard Way Shouted into the phone, and by the distortion of his voice Shannon guessed that he was holding the phone the wrong way round.

"Look -", Shannon's voice was drowned by a rowdy cheer in the background followed by Gerard shouting at somebody in the distance "Gerard! Listen have you seen -"

Shannon was cut off once again by another background noise. This time it sounded like the phone was being taken of Gerard. Shannon rolled his eyes and waited. 'Typical' he thought 'The one time I need him, and he's pissed as a parrot in some club in the middle of the night'

"Hey, Shannon", it was Mikey, Gerard's brother, Shannon guessed that he had gone to the toilets for some quiet, "Sorry about Gerard... you know what's he's like. I drew the short straw and I'm driving! Can't drink a thing...", he laughed

"Mikey, Jared's not with you is he?"

"Jared... No why, should he be?",

"Nah, it's nothing never mind just wondering... Thanks Mikey," Shannon sighed

"You okay?"

"Fine thanks, Jared's just being Jared..."

"I know what you mean", Mikey replied with a knowing laugh, "Okay... See ya soon Shann! I'll ring you if I see him"

"Brill, thanks!". Shannon put the phone down with bitter disappointment and a prickle of fear. Jared had never behaved like this. He knew that something was seriously wrong.

He grabbed his quilt and pillow and dragged them to the front door. He had decided to sleep there just in case Jared decided to come home. He was just pulling the sheet over him when the phone rang. Shannon's breath hitched in his throat as his heart skipped a beat. He raced to the phone not caring to check the caller I.D, praying to hear Mikey's or Jared's voice. Instead, a cool and deep voice answered

"Shannon Leto", It was a statement not a question yet Shannon paused before confirming his identity.

"Who is this?", Shannon was slightly frustrated, not only was he unlikely to have news on his brother, but this was probably some crazed fan or determined paparazzi.

"... It doesn't matter, are you alone? Someone may be listening!", Now Shannon was confused, why would a pap care for preying ears?

"Errr... yeah, look wh-"

"- meet me at dawn. You know that old warehouse on the edge of town...", The voice waited for Shannon toanswer "yes" before continuing, "Do not ask questions just make sure you're alone!"

"And why on earth would I do that? I'm not planning on being abducted or murdered or anything, and I'm pretty sure that anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night usually equate to those things if you arrange to meet that stranger in a dilapidated warehouse!"

"Shannon, I can promise you that I do not want to hurt you... I know about your brother, and I think that you deserve to know... even if they don't want me to tell you.

Shannon began to bombared the man with questios to which he received no answer,

"You don't have to come, it's your decision...", and with that he hung up. Shannon felt like he had been punched in the abdomen. His mind was reeling 'did this man really know about Jared?' he guessed that there was only one way to find out.

XxX

Shannon had left the house at half past five after a sleepless night. For better or for worse, this was likely to be his only chance at finding Jared. Of course, Shannon was not naive, he had called Tomo shortly before he left and told him to call the police and come and if he was not out of the building in two hours.

Shannon drove to the outskirts of L.A to an old, abandoned industrial estate. Only one building remained and it was a mystery to many as to why it had not been demolished. The area was completely deserted, to the point where it disconcerted Shannon. There were no vehicles, only the distant hum of traffic from the city. Shannon walked over to the rusted steel door of the warehouse, ignoring all of the 'No Entry' and 'Private Property' signs. He nervously looked around the empty area, wondering if he was about to make the biggest - and possibly last - mistake of his life, he knocked the door. Barley a heartbeat later the door swung open, causing Shannon to recoil in surprise. He slowly crossed the threshold whilst a horad of anxious moths buzzed around his innards.

The inside of the warehouse was, what Shannon considered , rather typical of old, dilapidated warehouses. It was large and draughty, due to the chunks of corrungated iron missing from the roof and walls. An array of aged,abandoned and rusted metal was strewn around the warehouse. Some looked like old machinery, others, just brick-a-brack.

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BANG! Shannon wheeled around as the door that he had just entered from slammed shut. Shannon seriously contemplated just running away as far as he could and pretend that he had never received that call. However, a larger slightly less reasonable part of him told him to stay. Shannon wrapped his sleeved arms around his torso to protect him from the cold and try to shrink the goose bumps that had very little to do with the draught. He peered around his surroundings, wondering where he was meant to go, but not one other living soul seemed anywhere even remotely near. So how had that door opened? It looked like a set that may appear in an action movie. Shannon was reminded of a British TV show called 'Torchwood' which he sometimes watched and half expected a Pteridactial to come swooping down.

As he looked up, he noticed something that nearly sent him to the floor. A door, which he had not previously noticed, had opened - silently - on the far wall opposite Shannon. A dark human shape was standing in it.

"Shannon Leto...", it was that same calm, deep and commanding voice, yet it was not uncivil, "come"

Before Shannon had realised it, he had followed the figure through the door and had been offered a seat on the other side of a large desk. Shannon was completely non-plussed. It was like he had walked into an entirely different building, not simply another room. Far from the neglect and rust he had been expecting this room resembled the office of a well-renowned inspector detector. It was well decorated - carpet, painted walls, working electricity and all - and many photos bearing scribbles and notes adorned the walls; As though he had been trying to find the culprit of a criminal investigation. The man took a seat on the other side of the desk from Shannon. The desk divided them as does a ravine, it divided them; the man who knows from the man who seeks.

"What is this place?", Shannon asked

"It is 'the Den'", He replied simply, "But I know that you aren't here to ask petty questions, nor am I going to answer them, so why don't you ask me about what you really want the answer to?", Shannon guessed that this man enjoyed being in control.

"Ok, what do you know about my brother, where is he and is he all right?", He kept his voice calm yet it maintained a clipped edge to it.

"Well, I do know a lot about your brother and yes, I know where he is... As for the last one, I guess that the answer to that is more about perspective."

Shannon was beginning to dislike this man

"Please, I'm not here to play games and if you don't answer me now then I'll just leave and go to the police 'cause I'm willing to bet that this place isn't for completely legal activities."

"Again, that depends on your perspective... Well, the problem is, I can tell you what is wrong with your brother,unfortuantely I doubt if you will believe..."

"Try me", Shannon said raising his brow.

"Hmmm, as you wish", The man purred, "Mabey we should start with me, my name is Caspian and I... deal... with matters such as your brother -"

"- But what? -"

"- please do not interrupt, Shannon. I found your brother four days ago lying in the depths of an alley way, he was confused and I recognised it immediately! I tried to get him to come with me, but lets just say that he hasaccumulated quite a temper since the change." Caspian paused as though waiting for Shannon to ask what 'the change' was, he did not so Caspian continued, "You found blood in your brother's room, gauge marks in the walls from his frustration and anguish... He returns to himself, or there abouts, by day, but his memory of the night before will return to him. He'll remember what he did... and it tears him apart",

Shannon was engrossed in the man's words, for one how on earth did he know the state of Jared's room? Those words scared him. What had Jared done? What did he mean by return to himself? How did Caspian know that Shannon had heard Jared's anguished cries?

Caspian leaned back against the chair, causing the leather to screech. He Entwined his fingers as he studied Shannon's features as though Shannon's questions were etched on his face. He took a deep, nasally breath.

"Mr. Leto, what do you know about Vampires?",

"Vampires?", Shannon let out a laugh and sigh of relief. This was a ll some practical joke. Shannon had to admit that Jared had really out done himself this time, "Well, Mr. Caspian, I would never put you as a 'Twihard' but evidently you have been reading too many Twilight books -",

"- You think I am lying?",

"Okay Jared, Joke's over. Very funny, you had me for a moment... You win", Shannon spoke to the room",

"Shannon! This is no joke! Your brother has killed six people, one of them was a young girl whom he killed the night before the last. That's why he didn't come home, we decided enough was enough and brought him here -", Shannon threw up his hands,

"Wait-wait-wait a minute! You honestly expect me to beleive my brother -what- a vampire?"

"Why would I lie? I could show you the girl's body if you want... Why are people so narrow minded? Why can't vampires exsit? Why can't Werewolves and dragons exist?",

Shannon would have spit out water had he been drinking any

"Werewolves! Dragons! your telling me they exist!", His voice was exasperated

"As far as I know Dragons don't... but they could! That's my point... and yes of course werewolves exist, where do you think all of the stories come from and the livestock that goes missing?", Shannon shook his head, this was too much.

"Okay... let's say what your saying is true. People would know! I mean, they would see them, be killed by them -",

"But they do and they are! It is just covered up! Look, I'm on your side I have no desire to lie to you."

"Hang on... I thought you said that he becomes a vampire at night and returns to himself by day, I thoughtVampires were always Vampires, isn't that a bit were-wolfish?"

"It only happens for the first week or so after every change, Jared doesn't stop being a Vampire at day, he just stops being an amoral-bloodthirsty killer."

"What about my brother? You said you have him.", This time Caspian sighed.

"I'm sorry Shannon... at the moment he is not your brother. But I promise you that I am doing all that I can to reverse him back... and I think that it is time to say good-bye ",

Shannon had not been aware of the person standing behind him until he felt hands around his neck. Before he could shout out something sharp pierced his neck. He began to feel lightheaded and weak. He slumped in the chair, his world growing black.

Then nothingness consumed him.


	3. Chapter 2: Monster

His senses began to flood back to him, dragging themselves from the darkness. Whereever he was, it was bright; He could see a white light streaming through his closed lids. Many noises and voices came to his attention next. He recognised one of them, but his brain was still foggy and could not seem to place who it was. He tried to move his finger and was glad to find that he could.

"Look!", that same familiar voice called, "He just moved", the voice sounded joyous and relived.

He was now aware that somebody was standing over him. Very slowly, he peeled open his stiff eyelids. The world wasblurred, but seconds by second, blink by blink, it began to focus. There, standing over him, was the beaming, bearded face of Tomo Milicevic.

"Shannon! Oh thank god!", He grinned, "I thought we'd lost you for a moment"

Dazed and confused Shannon sat up slowly. He peered round his surroundings. He was in a hospital room. In front of him he could see a busy corridor through the glass-walled door. A monitor beeped rhythmically next to him and IV tubes were connected to his hand.

"Wha- what happened?", He croaked, his voice crackling from lack of use, "Why am I here?"

"Actually, Shann, we were hoping you could explain what happend", Tomo's brows were slightly furrowed, "You didn't come back to my house like you said so I went to check over at your house. You were unconscious in your car. I couldn't wake you up so I called an ambulance... and you haven't woken up since",

"Ho-How long ago was that?... How long have I been unconscious for?", He asked curiously. Tomo didn't reply, but bit his lips tighter together, "Tomo... How long?",

"A few days now...",

"What! A few days! How?",

"The doctors were baffled, they found a small puncture mark, from a needle, on your neck and they did some blood tests... You were drugged - they're still identifying the drug. Everyone is saying that they've never know a drug to last this long... I mean, I found you on Friday -"

"and the day today is?",

"... Tuesday",

Shannon was stunned, he'd been unconscious for nearly five days. He closed his eyes, straining to rememberwhat had happened. Broken flashes of the warehouse and mysterious stranger whirled in his brain.

A doctor had come over to examine him. Seemingly convinced that Shannon was now in good health he told Shannon that he could leave tomorrow. Shannon had to stay overnight just to make sure, and they should havefinished testing the unknown substance in his system by the following day... Maybe then he would get some answers.

The room was now empty save for Tomo and Shannon.

"Is there any news on Jared?", Shannon asked the question he had been burning to know the answer to since regaining conciseness.

"I was hoping you'd know something...", Tomo replied with an awkward look, "I've heard nothing... sorry... what about you?"

Shannon sighed. Friday morning's events were now clear in his mind, but he was rather hoping that they had been created in his unconscious state like a dream. He doubted that Tomo would beleive, he wasn't even sure if he beleived.

"Well...I - There was a man, called...", He paused as he struggled to remember his name, "Cameron... or Cerian... Caspian! He was called Caspian -"

"Was this who called you?", Tomo asked with interest

"Must have been. His voice was similar. It was weir, that warehouse... eerie, like",

Shannon began to recall what had happened, the conversation that he had had. He paused and took a deep breath before telling Tomo about what Caspian had said about Vampires.

"And then someone just put their hands on my neck... and that's all I can remember..."

"Vampires?", Tomo used the same tone that Shannon had back in The Den," Seriously... That creep expected you to believe that!... Please tell me you don't beleive it, Shann.",

Tomo's deep brown eyes looked in to Shannon's hazel. Shannon blinked and looked away. He didn't know what to think.

"I don't know Tome... I guess it would explain Jared's -",

"- No! it wouldn't Shann! It wouldn't explain anything!", Tomo said incredulously, "The guy is a nut job! He's probably holding Jared hostage for a ransom... or - or - ... something! How could you beleive? - VAMPIRES!"

"Shhh!", Shannon hushed his friend as a nurse had just entered the room.

"You two can go down for lunch if you like", She smiled before leaving.

"There we go! Your hunger deprived. Delirious! Get some food down you and you'll see this as it is... nonsense!", Tomo finished with a satisfied nod. He then saw the slightly hurt look in Shannon's eyes and sighed, "Shann... I'm sorry, it's just... Vampires... don't exist...he was having you on", his voice was soft and apologetic.

Shannon nodded before following Tomo down to the Hospital Canteen. Maybe Tomo was right. Caspian was just messing with him. Surely Caspian had no idea where Jared was. The idea that his brother was a vampire seemed almost laughable to Shannon now.

 

XxX

"Leto...",

He saw a thin beam of light escape through the partially open door. Growing lager and larger until the silhouette of a man obstructed it, before walked forward towards the huddled shape in the corner of the room. He carriedsomething in his hands.

Jared looked up through his bloodshot, blue eyes as the youthful looking man passed him a loaf of bread.

"I guessed that you weren't going to eat that", he smiled jerking his head towards a beef-steak at the wall furthest away from Jared.

Jared gave a small, grateful smile before taking the food. The blonde haired vampire turned and was about to exit the small room when:

"Help me!", Jared cried out his eyes burning, "Please, I - I - I've done things... terrible things... I'm a... monster!"

The other Vampire, Dustin, looked at him with pity

"It's not your fault Jared, no one can control themselves when they first turn"

"Then why am I locked up in here? I'm the only one here"

"You're different", Dustin sighed, "I guess... I'm sorry, I don't know why... neither does Caspian... that's why you're here."

"You have to turn me back! Please! I hate what I am now... I can see their faces when I close my eyes, pleading with me to stop... but I don't, I just carry on... Please, you have to help me! There must be s-something", His voice broke with the effort of controlling himself. He gave a stifled cry of anguish before tears streamed down his pallid face.

"I-I'm sorry, Jared, there's no cure...", Dustin looked on with pity at the pathetic sight of Jared sobbing on the stone floor. He sighed and decided to tell Jared what he had come to say: "Caspian has spoken with your brother",

Jared's head shot up, both hope and fear shining in his bloodshot eyes.

"R-really? Is he okay?",

"He's fine... of course he did not truly believe -",

Jared's face flashed with anger

"Why didn't Caspian bring him here? He promised! Promised that I could see Shannon... where is he now?",

"I know, but Caspian decided it was too dangerous... I mean, your still uncontrollable. You could hurt-",

"-He's my brother! I would never hurt him... I wouldn't hurt anyone", He then realised the truth: He had hurt people, true, he had no control of it, but that was the problem. He couldn't see his brother... He couldn't see anyone.

Dustin gave a small and knowing smile. He had gone through exactly the same thing when he had first he had been able to control himself far better. Maybe it was Jared's energy and spirit that made Jared such a reckless 'newbie'. He had seen Jared perform in his band; the fire inside the blue eyes.

"Your brother's home now, he's safe. Caspian sent his hound to keep an eye out on him..."

With that he walked from the room, locking the door behind him.

He was left alone, in the cold and dark, alone to contemplate everything that the younger vampire had told him.

Jared sighed before taking a nibble of the bread he had been given. He was suprisingly hungry. Once he had eaten his fill he lent back against the dark and cold stonewall. Closing his eyes he thought back to how he was here, the night that had changed everything.

XxX

Sunday evening - 10 days previous

A smile Shone bright in Jared's eyes. He glanced down at his note pad, at the scribbled beginnings of a brand new song. He closed his eyes and breathed, content. He was up on the mountain by Griffin park, L.A. Spreading his arms he gave a small whoop of joy, he had always felt so alive up here. Unable to wait any longer to show his brother his ideas he got up and walked backdown the mountain.

He was barely halfway down when he passed the old industrial estate, a lone warehouse stood out, ugly against the lush green trees. He usually paid little attention to it. This time though, something caught his eye.

Someone was being forced through an iron door leading into the warehouse by three other figures. Jared watched the struggle with curiosity. Even from a distance Jared deduced that those trying to push the one through the door were male. The other, judging by the pitch of the screams, was a woman. Anger welled in Jared as he raced down to the warehouse desperate to help the poor girl,who was a great deal smaller than her attackers. He had barely left the dirt track when the door slammed shut behind the struggling party with a resounding, metallic thud. Undetered Jared reached the door and wrenched it open.

He caught only a fleeting glimpse of the flame haired women being dragged into the depths of the building, for the moment he crossed the foreboding threshold a blinding pain exploded through his head and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.

The next Jared knew he was sitting on cold stone, chained with his arms above his head to the wall behind his back. His head throbbed with pain. He would have nursed the burning lump where he had been hit if his arms were free.

"Ah, Mr. Leto, glad you could join us", A sneering voice came from the darkness. Jared looked up to see a shadowy man standing over him, "We've been awaiting you for quite some time, pretty boy, haven't we?" The man turned to address the two figures standing behind him. They erupted in raucous jeers of approval.

"Where am I? Who are you? What do you want?", Jared did his best to make his voiceauthoritative and demanding. However, he was chained in a room full of strangers with unknown capabilities.

"I really doubt you're in a position to ask questions Mr. Leto... However. now that you ask, I would like you to stop making that awful noise you call singing, however", Jared growled at the man as laughter rang through the room, "That is not why you are here...You are here to help us"

"well, if it's all the same with you I don't really think I'll be helping you. Now let me go!", Jared snarled

"Oh, don't worry, we will let you go... but first-", He snapped his fingers, causing the other two men to leave the room. They returned dragging a figure, held by two on either side towards Jared, or rather it dragged the two who were trying to control holding it.

Jared gasped as he recognised the middle figure as, not only the women he had come to the warehouse to help, but asHayley Williams, the singer of 'Paramore'. But she was not how Jared remembered her on their last meeting: Her orange hair was bushy and unkept, her eyes were black and cold, her mouth was held in a cruel snarl that flashed with long white teeth.

Jared backed away as far as he could against the wall, drawing his legs against his body as though to shield him from her.

"Hayley... Hayley!... It's me! Jared!... Hayley... No!... Please!", He cried out as she placed a hand roughly on his face, pushing it up to expose his sweating, thin neck.

"Sorry, Leto, I must rush, it's been nice talking to you", he grinned before leaving the room.

Jared's screams were futile as white teeth pierced his neck. Nothingness threatened to consume him as his blood was draining from his small body. On the verge of death a stone goblet was placed to his pale lips. His head was tilted back as he was forced to drink the scarlet liquid.

Rage and Pain were all that Jared could remember as he was left unchained in the room.

Before he knew it he had flown from the room, throwing away anyone in his path, and ran from the warehouse in search of blood. His conscience had been pushed into a small corner, beaten, as the beast took over him.

And he returned, after having taken a human life and quenched his thirst, to himself. Shaking and sobbing as he realised his actions of that night. He went to the only place he felt safe; his room. He leapt to the sill with ease due to his new-found abilities and pulled open the window for him to climb through. Locking the door, blocking himselffrom his brother whom he could not face to see, he sat in his room. Consumed with grief and anguish as he stared at his blood soaked clothes and hands.

Night would fall... and the hunter returned.

This occurred for four nights. By the fifth night he had regained some control. It took all his energy, but throughfighting he broke through. He was on a rooftop, somewhere in L.A, in the middle of the night. The creature inside had been subdued for the time being. He was doing all he could to hold on to himself. It was when a young girl cut her foot on a fragment of broken bottle did he lose. The beast roared at the scent of blood and Jared fell off theprecipice he had been clinging onto.

He ran, ran through the alley way, still posesed with cruelty. He ran for what seemed an age through the thinlabyrinth created by the cities buildings. Then, he was thrown to the ground, hard, as a heavy net enveloped his body. The rope Became more and more entwined in his flailing limbs. He roared, snarling at his captives who only stared down at his struggling body, laughing. A dog grinned above Jared's twisted face as though sharing in the men's glee. One of the men lifted a gun, pointing it at Jared's thigh. He pulled the trigger. It had shot, not a bullet, but a dart. Jared's eyelids began to droop. The drug subduing the raging vamparic monster inside him and once again he fell unconscious at the hands of 'the Den's' dwellers.

XxX

The ice blue eyes flew open as Jared returned to the present day, to the room in which he has been imprisoned since his latest capture. Jared opened his mouth and tentatively examined his teeth with his hands. They were theirususal, normal shape and size. Confusion enveloped him. He had always imagined vampires to remain so perminatly. Yet, he had not lost himself since he had killed the girl in the alley-way. And what had Dustin meant by 'you're different'.

He was dragged from his musing as the door opened again. A young girl was pushed through the door before it was slammed shut. Jared scrambled away from her, backing away as far as he could, for he recognised her face, her hair. Hayley Williams. He began to calm down when she did not attack and that the cold and malice had gone from her green eyes.

"Jared!", She called beaming as she approached his figure and sat down next to him, her face fell, "I-I'm sorry...",

"It's fine", He laughed, "You just scared me a bit when you came in. I understand though... I've done things too..."

She gave him a sad smile. They looked at each other for a few minutes. As though fascinated by their new condition

"So... your a-",

"Vampire... yeah, I guess", He laughed

"I was worried I'd... Killed you", She admitted.

"Nah, take more than that", He smirked with false bravado, "I think I drank your blood... that's what happens in vampire mythology isn't it? If you drink the blood of the Vampire that drank yours, then your become one... I think."

She nodded,

"It seems that way... I mean. It was one of the dweebs working here who turned me. They must be vampires as well. The Bastards hit me round the head as I walked back from the studio!"

"What were you doing being dragged in her that day anyway?"

"Bringing me here. My studio's in Franklin. They must've loaded me in the van and turned me in there. Where are we now then? What city?",

"You didn't notice the gigantic sign saying 'Hollywood' then?", Jared chuckled. Hayley punched him jokingly on the arm

"Oi, Mr. Sarcastic! I was a bit preoccupied with the men - vampires or whatever - dragging me... besides I was blindfolded, in case you didn't notice",

"Nope, I was busy as well, trying to save your cute little ass... and then you bite me... Thanks!", They were both laughing now.

"So we've in L.A?", She asked when they're giggles had subsided.

"Yep, greatest place in the world!", he said proudly, thumping the spot over his heart with his first patriotically.

"I thought you say that about everywhere you play at", her eyebrows were raised sceptically, "didn't you say it about Wales once?"

"Hey! have you seen some of those Welsh people when they're drunk? I wasn't about to mess with them!",

It was a while before they spoke again. Smiles still etched on their pale faces and their eyes unfocused. Hayley keptglancing around the room, taking in her surroundings or perhaps looking for means of escape.

"It's just... mad isn't it... Everything. I just wonder if it's all a dream, all a nightmare...",

"I know what you mean", Jared replied, placing a hand on her knee. He softly sang one of his songs in a whisper: 'Your defences were on high, your wall built deep inside...'

"Why are we hear Jay? Why us? Is he targeting musicians or something?"

"Ha, yeah, they're building up an army bloodsucking rock stars",

"But why?"

"I dunno... destroy Justin Beiber?... I was joking!", He threw his arms up as she hit him again.

"Seriously now Jay! We kneed to get out of here, find out what's going on and...",

"But, we're still what we are - vampires... obviously we can't live normal lives", He looked at her sadly

"We've learned to control ourselves though, it's been a week.",

"Huh?"

"Dustin told me that vampires run riot for the first week or so and then calm down",

"Who is Dustin anyway?"

"Like us I guess. He told me that he was turned when he was young. Caspian keeps him to deal with anyone held here...",

"but he told me that I was different. That I was more ferocious than most... Why is that? They said that they couldn't control me. So they brought me here",

"But Caspian usually lets the new vampire out on the street... Just not us. You escaped though didn't you?"

Jared nodded

"and now I need to do it again!"


	4. Chapter 3: Into Oblivion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, things are starting to get more interesting

He was alone. Feeling like the only living creature left for miles Shannon Leto stumbled down the dirt track that was enveloped in the warehouse's shadow. A shiver of Deja Vu shot through Shannon's spine as he stood in front of that same steal door. Shannon began to wonder how on earth this would work. This place was surely guarded, and by god knows

what, he could not just waltz in and out again. So he paused, his hand inches from the door he was about to push open. 'Burgulars don't just ring the door bell and hope to be let in!', he thought to himself. He scurried away from the door and began to hurry around the perimeter of the building. It was much bigger than he had first observed. Just as he was running around the back wall of 'The Den' a deep bark from afar caught him off guard. He tripped and fell into a pile of cardboard boxes and other discarded junk that had been thrown against a skip.

He was about to move his hand from underneath the rusting skip he was now lying against when he noticed something. As quickly and quietly he could, Shannon leapt to his feet and began pushing the hunk of iron out of the way. Heart racing, he looked down. A perfect, raised rectangle of earth lay where the skip had moments previously. Shannon had to stop himself whooping as he lifted the mismatching wooded hatch covered by earth. He threw the piece of wood behind him.

Hardly daring to believe his luck he stared into the hole that he had just uncovered. A secret entrance.

Adrenaline took over his normal thought process, without foresight of danger he sat on the edge of the darkness cut into the floor, pushed himself off and was swallowed by the ground. It had not even crossed his mind that should somebody come around the back of 'The Den', they would find the skip pushed over and the earthy cover disturbed, alerting them to the fact of an intruder

The wind began to pick up. It collected dust from the floor, spun it around the rusting metal objects causing an eerie whistling, before spewing the particles backdown to earth. A pair of glowing, amber eyes shone from the darkness beneath an old pickup truck. They were fixed on the spot where Shannon had just disappeared.

He was on his feet again, his arm slightly bruised and grazed. The drop had, thankfully, only been 10 foot of so, but that had caused Shannon to fall to the rocky, uneven ground below. He peered around his new surroundings. The hole above allowed a rectangle of light to filter through causing the tunnel to be illuminated for a few feet in front of and behind Shannon. Squinting into the grim gloom beyond where the sunlight's fingers caressed the craggy rocks, he came to the conclusion that the tunnel went on for miles both ways. He also realised that going right would take him under the warehouse, whereas left would weave a path through the mountains.

Shannon was about to walk towards the warehouse when he heard footsteps coming straight towards him.

"Shit!", he swore under his breath and began to run as swiftly yet silently as he could into the mountains. It was not long before there was a fork. He dived left and hid inside a large crevice in the rock face. Footsteps drew nearer and a pair of deep masculine voices to match. They echoed off the black walls. The sound crashing upon

Shannon's already pounding ears. He made himself as small as he could and placed his hand over his own mouth to stifle his breathing. Praying to god that they would just walk by.

"EEK!"

"What was that?", called one of the men. Shannon felt fear grab his stomach and begin to turn it. He held his breath, but was sure that the hammering of his heart would give him away.

"Just a mouse probably, come on Dustin, Caspians in a foul mood enough as it is, especially with that Leto trying to escape again",

Shannon mentally kicked himself no sooner than his gasp escaped his lips, he screwed his eyes tight; praying they had not heard

"Yeah... your right these tunnels must be full of stuff",

Shannon's heart fluttered in his ribcage with relief as he heard the footsteps begin to fade and die. They had gone. He looked down to see the culprit of the 'squeak', a large brown rat, looking up at him.

"You nearly go me killed, you rascal", He chuckled softly. He paused as he noticed something on the floor not far away and went over to inspect. It was a notebook left discarded. Picking it up Shannon flicked through the pages.

For a second time in five minutes he felt as though he had been punched, the breath leaving his lungs.

The wrtting, he recognised it. Of course he did. How could he not? It was Jared's. Shannon fell against the wall, he was here, or at least had been here. Amoug many scribbles and doodles Shannon found what he guessed were the beginnings of a new song, though heavily scribbled and amended he could read some of his younger brother's sprawling writing. Shannon guessed that it had been written in great excitement and a warm feeling spread through him like ink drops in water as he imagined his brother so happy:

_'I want you to stay_  
I want you to believe  
I want you to win the battles that are before you  
Will you stay? 

_You're running away now_  
You search yourself  
Even then those stories that I re-tell  
And that was yesterday  
It could have gone away' 

Shannon smiled, especially at the prompt words and scribbles orbiting these words such as:

'hold on', 'Survival',

He felt as though he could sit there forever and just stare at the ink Jared had once forged in to words, but he forced himself to get up and continue walking. The tunnel was almost pitch black; he had to feel the walls with his hands.

Eventually, after the tunnel snaked and turned through the granite, torches began lighting the dark gloom ahead. They gave the place and eerie, orange glow.

Shannon was stood in a small clearing, the claustrophobic tunnels had opened into a circular cavern, allowing the air to breathe again. Shannon saw that there were doors seemingly etched into the rock face. He raced up to the nearest one. It was a solid, iron door, no hatch to peer through only a heavy lock. However, a number was inscribed in the door's frame '1'. He ran to the next one, which swung open the moment he touched it.

Suddenly,more footsteps and voices drifted from around the corner. Breaking the silence. Panicking Shannon raced inside and closed the door. He managed to catch snippets of the conversation that, seemingly, three men were having.

"So what cell do you need Drake?"

"10, Caspian wants me to make sure that he hasn't managed to get out again.",

"Who?", Replied a new voice.

"Leto! Caspian'll do his nut if anything happens again", answered the second voice who sounded slightly exasperated: His companions did not seem too bright. "Anyway, lets just get this over with!"

Shannon's mind was racing. If they were going to Jared he needed to follow them. 'But you'll get caught' a small voice inside his head. That was true, and he was no good to any of them caught. He wondered if he could overthrow the three men... but that would attract attention and for his plan to work he needed to get within Jared's cell without being seen.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

Caspian sat in his darkened office. His head bowed and fingertips pressed together. He looked up as the sound of the soft padding of paws entered the room. His hairy, black dog, Kirus, was walking towards him.

"Kirus", he smiled patting the dog's head as it sat back on it's haunches next to him, "You bring news, I trust",

The dog gave a wolfish grin.

"Only the best", It's voice was course and harsh. "The Leto's brother is in the tunnels"

"Is he now?", Caspian purred, "Well... You know what they say: Two Letos are better than one". His feature's contorted into a menacing smile.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

Shannon had decided it was better to wait in the small room for the men to go. It was ten whole minutes before he tentatively pushed open the door and crept back out into the rocky corridor. Tip-toeing, hardly daring to breathehe slinked his feet across the cold stone. Finally, cell '10'. The large joy-filled balloon in his chest was popped: He needed a key. Shannon cursed under his breath. The key was surely with Caspian or his other vampire minions.

"I'm coming for you Jay...", He whispered with his cheeks pressed against the door, he didn't know whether his brother could hear him or not. He was about to turn and think through a ploy for entering the cell when he heard a heavy foot fall behind him. He felt hot breath on the back of his neck causing the little hairs to pick upwards with apprehension.

"Well, well, well... If it isn't little Shannon Leto on a rescue mission. You know I was kind of hoping you'd use the front door, but oh well, the thrill is in the chase". It was Caspian. Slowly Shannon turned to face the man. He was cornered like a hare with a pack of hounds.

"P-please... Just let me see him..."

Caspian smirked, "Don't worry Shannon, you'll see your precious brother soon", One of the many minions surrounding Shannon grabbed him and threw him to the sharp ground. Caspian withdrew a bunch of jangling keys from inside his large coat.

Shannon was now on his knees. His hands had been bound together, a rag across his eyes was tied at the back of his head: Blinding him. He still attempted to struggle, earning himself several hard blows with boots to his body.

Caspian opened the door separating the two brothers. "Jared!", He called, falsely sycophantically, "You have a visitor".

Shannon could not see a thing all he could do was shout "Jared!" but the screams were killed by the dirty cloth that had been shoved inside his mouth, only muffled cries escaped his lips. Now he was being shoved into, what he presumed was the room in which Jared was contained.

"What do you want us to do with him?", Asked one holding Shannon

"Tie him up over there... I'll deal with them both later", He waved his gloved hand, "Remove their gags and blindfolds though, I'm guessing they've been dying to talk to each other"


	5. Chapter 4: Until You See

It had been an hour since Tomo had dropped Shannon back to his home after being discharged. He decided that he had better change his clothes as he had been wearing them for days. As he went to throw his jeans into the washing machine he paused as his hands brushed against something that he had not previously noticed in his pocket. Shannon's brows were contracted in confusion as his hand was withdrawn from his jean pocket holding a folded piece of paper. With no recollection of the origin of the paper he unfolded it reveling a small narrow strip. Upon it in black, slanting ink was:

'Until you see, I shall not speak' a phone number was also inked below it.

Perplexed, he continued to stare at the paper, but was unable to glean any more meaning from it or from whom it was from. He concluded that it was very unlikely to be Tomo simply giving him his new number and turned over the slip.

Instead of a name as he had been expecting, a symbol was drawn upon the otherwise blank page. A religious cross entwined with a rose. His brows furrowed as he stood completely non-plussed. Shannon kept flipping the paper around as though simply by staring the meaning to the equally puzzling sides of the paper would leap out at him.

He was drawn from his musings by a knock on the front door and hurried off to answer it. Tomo raced throughlooking a little dazed.

"You haven't bought a dog have you?", He asked distracted.

"Err, No... why?-", Shannon replied perplexed. Tomo shook his head and then started as if remembering something.

"News!", He suddenly shouted causing Shannon to jump, "News! Have you seen the news?"

"N-No... Tomo what's happened?"

Tomo didn't answer, but rushed to the Leto's Living room and began flicking through the channels until 'ABC' news flashed on the large, wall-mounted screen.

A well-dressed, straight faced women was speaking into the camera, a photo of Jared smiling was super-imposed behind her.

"Yes... I've already seen the report on his dissap-"

"Shhh, listen", Tomo instructed. Shannon did as he was bidden and soon the picture changed to that of one he instantly recognised, in fact he had spoken to him on the night Caspian phoned - though he severely doubted that he could possibly have any recollection or the phone call. The photo was of the 30 year old, onstage, with his long black bangs.

"Gerard Way," The Anchorwomen read, "Has also been reported missing by younger brother Mikey. Mikey states that he has not seen Gerard in five days"

Shannon was about to speak when Tomo cut him off.

"Keep watching... it gets worse!"

As if on cue Gerard's picture changed. This time to a woman.

"Hayley Williams... As well?", Shannon gasped whilst Tomo nodded solemnly, "This is... - I mean - Three singers of three bands go missing in one week... It can't be a coincidence!"

"Where're you're going!", Tomo asked as Shannon dived for his keys and ran to the front door.

"Somewhere... You comming?", He replied. Tomo sighed before following Shannon out of the door.

Shannon ignored any of Tomo's queries as they both got into the large silver car.

"There see!", Tomo exclaimed as Shannon pulled out of the driveway, he was pointing out of the window where a large, black dog lay below a bush in Shannon's garden, partly hidden by view.

"He ain't mine, must be a neighbours dog... or Jared's been turned into a dog that would probably make things simpler", Shannon muttered under his breath.

"Shann, please where are we going?",

"Mikey Way's in L.A, I want to have a word with him.", Shannon sighed as he finally answered Tomo's question. He did, however, consciously leave one crucial element out of his answer, but Tomo would find out soon enough he told himself.

Mikey and the band were staying in a hotel a short drive from Shannon's home. Shannon received a quizzical and slightly sceptical look from Tomo as he pulled up in front of the grand building and exited the car. Tomo drummed his fingers against the dashboard, humming to himself as he waited for Shannon to return from the depths of the large hotel.

It was ten minutes before Shannon emerged, with a slightly ill looking Mikey Way behind him, and got back into the car. Tomo swivelled round and gave a smile to Mikey, who sat in the back seat. Mikey returned it with a smaller, plastic smile through which concern for his brother flooded through, as present as it was in Shannon's eyes.

The car was silent as the car once again moved along the busy street. The gigantic sign standing guard over its precious city towered over them, growing closer with each impossibly fast revolution of the car's wheels.

"Shann, where are we going?", Tomo asked growing evermore suspicious. He felt as though he had an inkling of where the car was heading and it made an army of many-legged creatures scuttle across his spine. Shannon took a long pause before muttering something incoherent under his breath, "sorry?" Tomo replied

"The warehouse...", Shannon spoke louder this time his face sheepish. Tomo's mouth dropped into an 'O' shape

"What? Shannon have you gone insane? The last time you went there you were drugged!", Tomo shriekedincredulously. They argued for several minutes before Tomo finally backed down, he had learnt from his time in the band that trying to change a Leto's mind always proves futile and simply resorted to staring out the window, Mikey shifted slightly in his seat.

Shannon sighed and reached down to switch on the radio. They listened, indifferent, as a host prattled through the speakers. His voice began to fade into the bars of a unintroduced song. Shannon shook his head slightly and smiled as he instantly recognised it as one of their own 'Saviour', Tomo began to tap the beats out onto the car'sinnards whilst Shannon mouthed the words his brother sang, listening intently.

"Until you see, how could you believe?"

Shannon gasped dramatically.

"What! What? did you see him?", Tomo asked excited. Shannon didn't reply, instead performed an illegal U-turn andreceived some colourful swear words from Mikey, "Shannon, what the hell do you think you're doing!" Tomo yelled, nursing the arm that he had banged due to the car's voilent swerve.

Shannon was not listening, he knew exactly what he was doing and he could feel that little fragment of paper tingle inside his jacket pocket. The car pulled up outside the city library, Shannon exited the vehicle followed by an infuriated Tomo and slightly confused looking Mikey. It was only when they were inside the library did Shannon decide to explain his behaviour by taking out the paper and waving it at his two accompanies. Although Shannon's mind was whirring too much to give what most human beings would class as a sufficient explination. Instead, he breathlessly babbled words and sentences of little value to Tomo and Mikey's ears as they followed him through the marble building.

"I knew it, knew that I had heard those words - 'Until you see'- before. Beleive get it! It's either Jared or that Caspian bloke trying to tell us something", Tomo tried his best to interrupt Shannon especially as Caspian wasmention but failed miserably as the Leto steam rolled on, "It's simple! And I bet you anything...", Shannon didn't finish the sentence, he had reached his destination and was conversing with a middle aged librarian sitting behind the large oak desk whilst showing her the reverse side of the piece of paper. She nodded and pushed her glasses further up her nose before exiting her station and beckoning the party to follow.

"It's a strange story really", The librarian addressed the three men following her, "A man came in and donated the book about a week ago, said that someone might find it interesting." Shannon raised his eyebrows at Tomo in a 'I told you so' manner. They were lead into a desrserted area of the library consisting of rows of leather bound books. Their blonde guide mumbled to herself as she ghosted her hands along the various delicate spines of the many books as though the desired one would leap out from it's sanctuary.

"Ah-ha!", she wiggled the fingers of her hand hovering over one of the battered spines before drawing from its snug spot, not unlike a warrior unsheathes his sword for battle. "Here you go sir, if you decide you wish to take it out of the building, then please consult me first.", her gaze lingered on Shannon and then Tomo for a few long seconds, as though wishing to say something, but thought better of it, instead, she gave a small smile before turning on her heels and leaving the room.

"Right", Shannon prompted as he took one of the seats surrounding the table upon which the book lay, Mikey andTomo followed suit. Shannon gasped when he saw the cover of the book. There was no title or author on the book, instead, embossed upon the brown peeling leather was a symbol one that Shannon was now very familiar with: a Rose entwining a

Christain cross. The three of them stared at the book.

"Shann... what's this about?", Tomo asked pleadingly. Shannon looked at his friend before explaining about the paper and showing the two men the symbol.

"So... you really think that this will help find our brothers?", Mikey asked

"Yes", Shannon replied licking his lips, "I do",

The book looked very old, peeling and faded with anonymous stains. In itself it was not overly large, which slightlydisapointed Shannon as somewhere deep down he had wanted to dramatically heave the cover open, for it to make a resounding thud on the table and cause clouds of dust to billow up. Instead, he merely flicked the A5 sized book open with an anti-climactic air. All three men leaned in to study the book's contents. Tomo furrowed his brow as the books pages were flicked through, as did Mikey, Shannon however, wore a satisfied grin upon his face.

"... Vampires...", Tomo said in a weak voice.

That was exactly what this book revolved around, but it did not talk about vampires as though they were fiction. It was a sort of information book the kind that you might get if deciding to buy a puppy, including sightings, methods of turning vampires, it even included graphic drawings. But what inrigued Shannon most was the mention of two little words:

'The Den'

He gasped and pointed at the them before reading out loud the paragraph that followed.

"'Whilst many organisations for the prevention of vampire (and other creature) exposure to the general public, none is perhaps more well-known than 'The Den'. Working to protect 'so-called mythical creatures' and mortals from the dangers of each other, The Den is rumored to be based within Calafornia, North West America, and to be head command center of the 'MCP - Mythical Creatures Protection'. Other than mentioned above little is known about the facility due to the persistent secrecy of its leader Caspian' -" Shannon paused an squinted his eyes for something had seemingly been spilt on the page causing the ink of the next few lines to blur and spread and was now completely illegible. He continued to read what he could "- 'Vampires and werewolves are alleged to be the main creatures at The Den although reports of a' -", Shannon paused again" - bloody hell -... 'a Phoenix have been present'... blah, blah, blah something about the author not being responsible for misinformation on the bird..."

"Well... Either someone is going the extra mile for one of the most elaborate practical jokes in history or I do believe that you owe me an apology, Milicevic", Shannon lent back in his chair looking smug as he watched Tomo, who seemed to be slightly lost for words.

"Of, course it could be all made up..." He stated slowly, but then took a deep breath and shook his head, "but I don't think it is, you were right Shann...", He replied apologetically

"So you believe it?", Shannon asked him, Tomo swallowed

"Yes, I do... It just makes the whole situation a heck of a lot more complex... What about you Mikey?",

"Well... I-", Mikey seemed lost for words it was a lot for him to take in. He was prevented from answering by Shannon's mobile phone ringing. Shannon fumbled for it within his pocket, pressed the 'answer' key and held it to his ear:

"Hello... Oh, Hi!... Brilliant... yeah, uh-huh... what! Really?... okay, well thank you very much... okay goodbye",

The other two waited for Shannon to finish

"That was the hospital, they had the results of the drug test in aaaand... Nothing! It's never been discovered before and they have no idea on its origins and want me to contact them as soon as I feel strange as they're not sure of any side-effects - obviously, as it's an unknown drug. But they think that it should be out of my system by now"

"Woah, so it looks like vampires don't just invest in Desflurane and the likes to go around knocking everyone out..." Said Tomo with a raised eyebrow. It was a few minutes of silence before Mikey asked asked to look at the book, Tomo obliged by sliding it across the table

"Creating Vampires, Sustaining them... Destroying them - that could be useful!" Mikey summarised some of the chapters after flicking though the browning pages. He was interrupted by Tomo coughing to indicate that they were no longer alone. Mickey threw the book down so that it lay open. No one though to cover or conceal it as they were preoccupied by the figures at the entrance to the small back room of the library they were in.

It was clear that the two girls standing there had been doing so for a while, it was also clear that they knew exactly who the three men sitting at the table were - the fact that one girl displayed a 'Triad' necklace proudly on her neck made a small icy cube of dread slip down Shannon's throat, at that moment fans were not on his list of things to deal

with.

One of the two, she was blonde and wearing a small gold key threaded on a string of ribbon instead of the triad, stepped forward tentatively. Her friend followed her example and soon both girls stood next to the table. The 'triad' girl gave her long purple hair a nervous shake before clearing her throat.

"S-sorry to disturb you... We just wanted to say that we're so sorry about Jared and that all of the Echelon arelooking for him - and Gerard", she added turning to Mikey, "We'll find them"

Both girls smiled reassuringly at the three men who all smiled of thanks.

"Thanks guys... Sorry, we didn't catch your names", Shannon said politely. The blonde girl waved her hand at herself and then at her friend.

"My name's Leah, and this is Abbie. We were on holiday here when we heard the news... We were due to fly back to Wales today, but we've deferred our flight for a week."

"What's this?", Shannon spun around to see Abbie peering over his shoulder at the open pages of the sincediscarded book.

"Err, it's nothing... We were just" Shannon stuttered

"Vampires!", Abbie exclaimed excited she then paused, thinking, "Wait... you don't mean... really?... No surely not!"

"Really, it's nothing!", Shannon said briskly, shutting the book with a thud

"It's fine...Mr. Leto - Shannon - May I call you Shannon?... I get it!"

"Get what?", Leah asked, bemused.

Shannon sighed before turning to Tomo and Mikey for advice, Tomo gave him a 'we're gonna need as much help as we can get' shrug. Mikey indicated to two vacant chairs for the girls to sit upon

"Okay", Shannon breathed before launching himself into a retell of what had happened since the first night Jared had acted strange. The girls were left slightly in shock after he had stopped talking, "I know that you probably don't believe me...", He said with his head tilted slightly.

"No, we do!", Leah said fervently, Abbie nodded to confirm this. "We'll help you in any way that we can."

Shannon lent back, musing as he stroked his slight beard.

"welllll, I guess there is something - no I can't..." He looked lost a deep contemplation was taking place beneaththose hazel eye. Finally, he inhaled deeply thinking of his baby brothers glowing face. "Ok, we'll need to get into the den somehow, Gerard and Jay must be in there Hayley as well I hope! I think Caspian wants me to talk to him... 'Until you see, I will not speak' So that's what I'm gonna do",

"Shann, I dunno about that",

"If it gets them back then I don't care what I have to do! Besides it's not as if it's his fault, he's trying to help Jared and the others"

"It's just... the guy creeps me out and I haven't even met him!"

"I know Tomo... But what other chance have we got?", There was silence for a few minutes, then suddenly, "I'mgoing in",

"What! No Shann you can't... not by yourself",

"I'm gonna go in there and find them! I don't care how, I just am!", His brown eyes were smouldering now like logs on a fire, "Leah, Abbie do you think that you could get some help... round up the Echelon and MCRmy?"

Both girls gave a mock salute

"/To the warriors and keepers of the gate... we wait/!" Abbie quoted with a smile,

"A call to arms", Leah added, "Time to go to war"

Tomo shook his head incredulously, but Shannon could tell that beneath his bushy beard lay a toothy grin.

"Your brother must have planned this when making that album",

"Well the Echelon are warriors... We'd go to the edge of the earth and fight to the death for you guys", Abbie winked

"Yep, There is a fire inside of this heart and a riot about to explode into flames" Leah giggled

"And whoever took them had better run away 'cause I'll attack".

"of course, we're not afraid to keep on living, awake and unafraid", Leah finished, grinning at Mikey who's lips

curled

"Okay! Okay! Enough with the lyric quoting before I go mad!" Tomo chuckled waving his arms above his head.

"Brilliant," Shannon clapped both hands together.

"What's the plan then?", Mikey asked

"Right, after I've gone in there and hopefully found them I might need some help getting out again! Caspian didn't seem too keen on me seeing Jay the last time so I might need to use a little force!",

"So your not as trusing of him as you seem" Tomo said looking pleased

"I'm not sure... If I can get in there and out, then that's brill... but if whatever is going on in there is not quite what it seems, then I guess we're gonna have to fight! And that's where we may need outside help!".

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

Shannon and Tomo were sitting in Shannon's car on the road adjacent to the warehouse. They were concealed by trees and busy going over the plan to each other.

"It's 1600 hours" Tomo raised his eyebrows at the way in which Shannon had decided to deliver the time, "What? we may as well make this sound like a proper military operation... anyway, so if I'm not out of there by... 8:00 amtomorrow morning them initiate 'operation Buffy'"

Both friends looked and laughed, "Gotta love Leah for that name. Right, so that should give me 16 hours to get in and out which should be just enough time to get Jared, Gerard and Hayley out of there and hopefully not enough time for me to get killed or something... You never know though, the Jackson 5 could be down there for all we know so it may turn into a full-blown rescue mission."

"...and Leah, Abbie, Mikey, Frank and Ray are at your house, which is where I'll be going after dropping you off"

"Correct", Shannon nodded

"Just be careful Shann... please" Tomo begged with sad eyes as Shannon reached for the car door.

"I'm always careful, See ya later Tomislav!", Shannon slammed the door behind him, placed his index and ring finger to his forehead and brought them swiftly away again to say goodbye to Tomo before promptly tripping over a rock.

"God help us...", Tomo muttered as he watched his friend dust himself off and walk towards 'The Den'


	6. Provehito In Altum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything's hotting up. I am an evil person

The blessing of sight returned to him as rough hands removed his blind fold. The men had barely left the cell and locked the door before a gut-wrenching familiar voice cried out:

"Shannon!", it was Jared

"Jared! Jay!", he called back, ecstatic at finally being so close to his brother. His eyes were still adjusting to the gloom.

"What are you doing here?", Jared asked. Shannon was able to see better now. He could just make the outline of his brother out.

"Never mind that, are you okay?", Jared nodded in reply

Both brothers were shackled, their arms above their heads, to the walls opposite each other. The room was not big, but even if they both stretched their legs as much as they could they could barely touch each other's toes

"My god, Shannon, I'm so glad to see you!", They both gave joyous laughs at their reunion, "I thought that Caspian might have gotten to you", Shannon smiled and shook his head, "How on earth did you find out about this place? Or did they take you?",

"Nah, I came here..." Shannon then began to recount what had happened since Jared's disappearence.

"Gerard's here too?", Jared asked, stunned, after Shannon had finished.

"Yeah... I thought you'd know that. What about you though? Caspian said he found you in an alleyway already turned"

Jared gave a derisive snort, "Did he? Lying bastard! It was he who turned me... well Hayley Williams, but she didn't mean it."

"Hayley Williams?", Shannon repeated aghast. It was then that Jared retold his story of events.

"Last night, I decided to try and escape. Hayley had a hair pin in her pocket and I managed to pick the lock... I knew that breaking into all those houses would come in handy one day", he smiled, reminiscing when he was younger, "Me and Hayley didn't get very far though, we got caught and put into separate cells... I've been tied like this ever since", He added, shaking the large cuffs on his wrists for effect.

"So... You are defiantly a... vampire?", Shannone asked slowly. Jared nodded solemnly. "Don't worry! We'll find a way to change you back", Shannon reassured his younger sibling.

Both their heads shot up suddenly as a light bulb screwed into the ceiling, which Shannon had not previously noticed, began to flicker until a dusky light filled the room. Shannon was able to look at his brother for the first time in days. He looked awful: Long stubble around his face threatened to become a messy beard, his hair was knotted and dirty. He had lost his shirt and the now grubby jeans he wore had numerous holes. He was thin, very thin and had obviously lost a lot of weight in the short space of time. Bruises and lacerations covered almost every inch of his pallid and waxy skin.

"What the fuck happened to you, Jay?", Shannon breathed in quiet disgust. Jared shrugged nonchalantly; "I became a vampire... and the guards really didn't like my last attempt at going 'AWOL'", he pointed to the angry purple bruises on his face.

"I'll kill him for doing this to you!"

"You'll have to beat me to it", Jared chuckled, "Now what was this you were saying about a rescue mission?"

"Oh, yeah!". Shannon looked up to try to read the watch twisted at an awkward angle on his wrist, "it's... bugger... It's six o'clock now - I think... that means we've got fourteen hours before they put the plan into action.

"Ah, so we've got a lot of time to kill then", Jared smiled.

It was just then that a loud clunking made both men's heads turn to the door, which to their horror, was opening.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had been two hours since Tomo had returned to the Leto's home. He, Abbie, Leah and the remaining membersof My Chemical Romance - Mikey Way, Ray Toro and Frank Iero - were sitting around the kitchen table. Scraps of paper littering the table top.

"Tomo... Shannon said 8:00 am tomorow morning, didn't he?", Abbie asked as she traced her finger down a piece of paper. Tomo nodded, "Nope, that's not gonna work! I say if he ain't here by 12:00, midnight, we go."

"You sure?", Tomo queried, "That may not be enough time, as he said it's not the getting in... It's the getting out"

"Don't forget, he's gone into a building full of potentially homocidal vampires and god only knows what eles! If we leave him there much longer on his own then he might never come home", Tomo tilted his head side to side as though to agree

"I conquer!", Ray shouted slamming his fist on the table playfully, with a big grin on his face.

"Have you been drinking?", Mikey asked with a raised eyebrow

"Nah! Just excited! I mean Vampires! Actual Vampires! And an actual vampire hide-out! Which we're gonna break into and beat the shit out of them!",

"Is that the actual plan?", Leah asked, "Bash the door down and create havoc until we find them?", Frank nodded

"Well... there's a little more to it than that", Mikey said, pulling out a sheet of paper containing a map. "I managed to find this in that book... It seems a little silly really that Caspian would show us a book with this kind of information". Mikey began to point to different location's on the map. "Down here are the Cells, which is where, I presume Gerard, Jared and Hayley are being held. These are in the tunnels, which you can get to from inside the warehouse... but! I've found something rather interesting -", Mikey moved his hand over to what appeared to be the 'Hollywood' sign "- Look the tunnels almost lead up to here, but I'm willing to bet that there's a secret entrance or something which means we could get into the tunnels from the mountains."

"Micheal James Way, you sir are a genius!", Frank clapped his back.

Tomo looked around and could not help but smile. Abbie and Leah had both tied red material around their foreheads. Their Triad and 'Hurri-key' quickly secured around their necks. They had both smeared war paint and triads onto their faces with neon paint, Tomo also had this painted on his bearded face. Ray had tamed his wild hair into a ponytail, with a cameo-print tie around his forehead, the effect made his resemble Rambo, even more so for the garden earth he had rubbed into his face. Mikey had drawn dark circles of eyeliner on his sockets as had Frank. However, Frank had decided to go bare-chested with a large, black marker spider on his abdomen, whereas Mikey had retrieved his 'Killjoy' jacket which he now wore. Tomo wore the helmet they had used whilst filming 'This is war'.

"This had better not turn out like your 'SING' video", Tomo commented as Ray pulled on his black 'Jet Star' jacket.

"And I hope it doesn't end up like 'Hurricane' either", Frank laughed, "I do NOT want to be chased by a sledge-hammer wielding Gimp".

When the groups laughter subsided, Tomo decided to get back to business, "Girls, you said you'd round up a few people?"

"Yep, we've sent the message on the internet... and rang a few people", Answered Leah

"It all depends on whether they take up the 'Call To Arms'",

"Cool, well I'm going outside for a minute... fresh air".

Ray placing a hand on his shoulder as he turned to leave, "You alright man?",

Tomo nodded, "Tough day, that's all, I just hope that they're okay...",

He stood on the edge of the balcony, leaning against the balustrade which Jared had painted sky-blue. Tomo stared out at the crashing ocean waves. The light was beginning to die out as great droplets of red and purple ink seeped through the sky above like watercolours. He inhaled deeply, listening to the melodic cries of birds. Tomo lit a cigarette and began drawing smoke into his lungs, he chuckled, reminiscing all of the futile attempts Jared had made to make him and Shannon quit. Ironically, Jared was the reason he was holding this particular cigarette; he had needed to calm his mind. The sound of what only could be described as a riot moving up the street shattered the blissful silence. He ran to the French doors as the mass of voices and footsteps drew nearer.

"What on earth is that?", Tomo asked breathlessly once he was back inside. As an answer Abbie and Leah swung the front door open and a hundred or so people spilled inside the house. Had Tomo not know better he wouldhave begun to wonder if someone had replaced his tobacco with marijuana. The house was now full to bursting with people. They weaved in and out of each other, buzzing like bees in a hive. All of them were dressed in bright colours, the next person was more unique that the previous. Many had painted their faces or trained their hair intounusual styles.

"I thought you said a 'few people'!", Tomo said exasperated at Abbie who was pouring herself a glass of tap water. She winked at him.

"News spreads. Besides the Echelon wanted to do their bit -", Mikey coughed pointedly, "- Oh yeah, sorry, the '30 seconds to MCRmy'... but that's such a mouthfull", Abbie protested.

"Anyway", Leah chipped in, "As you guys say: 'Don't fuck with the Echelon!' 'cause trust me we will defend you guys!"

Tomo sighed, "This will be the death of me..."

A loud smash brought him to his senses, "Right, now that's enough!", He called over the rucous, but his voice mingled and faded with the hundred others, "Guys! Really! Listen!", This attempted was in vain as well.

"Tomo, if you're going to do anything, you may as well do it properly", Leah sighed as she scrambled onto the counter. She drew a deep breath before screaming:

"EVERYBODY QUIET!"

The din immediately subsided as every head turned towards her and Tomo

"Thank you", She coughed

Tomo was momentarily stunned, "Yes, well-done... Thanks Leah", He smiled, "Right we're gonna go over the plan now but before that some ground rules! Firstly, if I find anything that was previously in this house on eBay, I don't care if it's just a mouldy cornflake I will unleash the Ravenclaws on you! And no going in the bedrooms. Jared's already a vampire as it is, he does not need a list of the contents of his underwear draw on 'Tumblr'."

"What about on Deviant Art?", one girl asked

"Especially not on Deviant Art. I've had the displeasure of discovering Leto-cest and all I can say is that some ofyou guys have twisted minds... Thankfully, I didn't show it to Shannon or Jared...",

"What's the plan then 'ToMOFO'?", queried a mid-teen aged boy whose hair had been fiercely gelled up.

"The plan... follow us and kick some vampire ass! Provehito in altum!"

The crowd punched the air as the shouted back "Provehito in altum"

"What's the real reason you don't want them in the bedrooms?" Abbie asked quietly

"There may or may not be some new songs pinned to the walls", Tomo winked. Both Abbie and Leah gasped.

"B-But you said that you weren't even considering a fourth album yet"

"Yeah, and we've also said that we sacrifice tofu and Jared folds himself in to pretzel knots before gigs and that Shannon has the uncanny ability to shoot blue flames from his palms", Leah shrugged in a 'that's true' manner, "But please don't let that get out!"

"Echelon's promise", They both replied, hands over hearts.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

As the orange torch light spilled into the room the instantly recognisable figure of Caspian stood in the doorway. It entered the room followed by the dog, attached to its side like glue. Caspian slammed the door shut behind him.

"Well, this is cozy, don't you agree?", He smirked, receiving a stony glare from both brothers, "Now Jared, don't look at me like that! We go so far back, you and I", His voice feigned a hurt touch and dripped sarcasm. Jared gave a snort

"What do you want, Caspian? If you touch my brother again I swear I'll -", Jared growled, but was cut off by Caspian

"- You'll what, Jared? You're both chained to a wall the last time I looked.", Jared was incandescent with rage, but neither brothers could deny they were both entirely at the mercy of the mad man and his dog. Almost to emphasis this, Caspian reached out and quickly stroked Shannon's cheek with his index finger, who tried in vain to shirk him off.

"Don't you touch him!", Jared screamed. This only exacerbated Caspian's menacing grin and gave Shannon a small slap. Jared actually kicked Caspian's leg in retaliation, earning a deep gouge mark from the dog's swift claws on his already marked chest.

"No Kirus!", His owner cooed, "Not yet",

"'Not yet?'". Parroted Shannon a sliver of anxiety in his voice, "You mean you're going to kill us?"

"Shannon, Shannon... You mortals make me laugh; always jumping to the worst of conclusions..." Caspian started to pace back and forth; not out of nervousness, but contempt. "But I am not here to make small talk nor listen to your petty whining. There is a reason why I am here and I believe that we shall handle that later... for now, however, I being the courteous man that I am felt that you deserved to know exactly why you are here. I guess that you may call me a revolutionary -", Shannon rolled his eyes, "- Mythical Creatures have remained subordinate to you mortals for far too long and I am the one who shall end our repression. Together we will rise up and finally humans will know what it feels like to be chased underground! The revolution is coming, and I shall be at the helm as the fray unfolds -"

"And capturing members of rock bands and turning them into vampires will aid your 'touching' vision how exactly?", Jared asked satirically.

"Who said anything about just vampires? And believe me, I am getting to that! I knew that the best way to execute my plan was to tear the repressers apart from the inside. Of course that would be that pathetic organization who supposedly 'protect' us. So I became the very head! The leader of 'The Den'! I was left to my own devices and could secretly carry out my plan's right under the government's noses. Gaining more and more support. But I knew that that wouldn't be enough. My men caught a young girl who had wondered too close. She said she had been lost and looking for where your little music video was filmed, before we killed her that is" Jared felt sick and it had very little to do with the trickle of blood that had meandered down to his thighs," So I decided to find out more about 'Thrity Seconds to Mars', and what a blessing it was... Your fans are some of the most passionate and dedicated and I knew that this was what I needed. And then I discovered that you were not alone in this phenomenon: 'My Chemical Romance' fans too shared a burning passion for the band. I knew that if I could harness this power, my goal would be within reach."

"Right I follow you so far... psychopathic lunatic - possibly some sociopath traits - with a dream for taking over the world - pretty bog standard villainous plan really... but how on earth would our Echelon and other fans help?", Shannon asked, eyebrows raised. Caspian brushed off his insults, there were far more important things to discuss, and after all... he would get his revenge soon.

"Well, that is where you come in. You men, as I have said, seem to have a big influence over fans - I saw it with that girl. Your jobs is simple. Your next concert I will be there, as will many of my followers will be too. Your fans will be converted or forced into submission, along with Hayley's and Gerard's... And believe me they WILL be!"

"Wait, wait, wait... I think I've just spotted one flaw in your plan; We won't do it!", Jared's eyes were narrow slits.

Caspian gave a mirthless laugh at his words, "That's why I chose bands whose relationship with their fans is mutual, you are very fond of your Echelon... So your choice will be simple: Obey my commands, or watch as I kill every single one of your beloved fans at that performance", Jared's glare carried enough distaste and poison to kill several men

"You couldn't!", Shannon breathed, appalled.

"You think not?", Caspian laughed, "Making an omelet requires the breaking of eggs... If people must be broken along the way, then so be it."

An icy silence descended upon the small room. Hatred snaked its way though the quite as the three men and dog simply leered at each other, as though seeing who would crack first. Something had been niggling away at the back of Jared's mind.

"Why is it that you took me, Hayley and Gerard only? You didn't even attempt to capture the other band memebers",

"I know how bands work. They can't function without their leader... Beside's you were all either family, or technically so. I know how most humans work... you would do anything to save your own. I just relied on that pack instinct. And so far it seems to be working"

Shannon was still digesting the whole situation. For lack of his better judgement he had still trusted Caspian, believed that he was helping his brother, "So you lied about everything! You said that you were helping Jared! You said that found him in an alley-way already turned into a vampire", Caspian waved a gloved hand airily, "So that's why you put that paper in my pocket, to lure me here in the hope that I would talk to you about saving my brother."

"Paper? What Paper?", Caspian snapped, suddenly serious. Shannon was nonplussed, "... The paper I found after I woke up... 'Until you see, I shall not speak', the phone number and the symbol of the book", Both were staring at each other in confusion

"What are you talking about? I did no such thing",

"I thought you put that book in the library to lure me here..."

"And you were stupid enough to still come", Caspian snorted, "I knew that you would come eventually, why waste energy? Admittedly I was hoping that you'd bring the other one, Tomo with you... But no matter... I will have him too"

"No Please", Jared sounded pitiful, "Please just don't hurt him, or us or anyone else... Just let us go... Change me back. I promise we will help you and you race get better rights!", Caspian gave a bark of laughter

"Nice try... but you lot are vital to my plan", He turned to speak to Kirus, "I think that it is time for the other one to join the family"

"I think so too", The dog spoke again in that same harsh growl. It was impossible to tell who looked more shocked; Jared or Shannon.

"But - It - What - But - Huh?", Jared stuttered

"It can talk!", Shannon spoke for his brother.

"Yes, stupid mortal! I can talk!"

"Now, now Kirus... They at least deserve an explanation. See... Kirus is my brother"

Shannon howled with laughter, "I knew it! That makes you one heck of a 'Son of a Bitch', Caspian"

"Silence!", Kirus hissed. It fell; Shannon was not about to disobey a beast which could quite easily kill him with one strike, Jared's injury was minor compared with the brute's true strength.

Upon the nod of his brother's head Kirus began to pad towards Shannon.

"NO!", Jared screamed, but he was too late.

"Oh, maybe I should have mentioned earlier... Kirus, used to be human", Caspian smirked. And with that the dog sunk its teeth, hard, into the flesh of Shannon's immobilised forearm

Shannon had recieved numerous dog bites in his life. Even managed to lose a toe to one, but nothing could compare to this. He felt as though molten 'stinging nettles' had been injected into his bloodstream. Pain Pulsating deeper into his body as his heart beat more and more frantically, shooting to every inch of his being. Scalding and pricking him from inside his own veins. He tried to remain poker-faced, but try as he might he eventually betrayed pain, letting out a cry of agony. Sweat began to flood from his pores, plastering hair to his scalp. His breathing becoming increasingly laboured and all the while he could hear Jared screaming, chain's rattling with his desperate attempts to save his older brother, to stop his pain.

Pain blinded him, the boiling blood pounding in his ears made hearing impossible. Through the agony and darkness Shannon could only pray that the substance flowing though his veins was poison, bringing with it the promise of blissful release from this torture, the promise of death.


	7. Chapter 6: From Yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caspian's plan begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm evil... I know *mwhahahha*
> 
> Oh, the italics towards the end of the chapter indicate Kirus' poin of view.

_On a mountain he sits, not of gold but of shit;  
Through the blood he can look, see the life that he took;  
From the council of one he'll decide when he's done with the innocent;  
On his face is a map of the world_

 

"Whaa!",

 

"Oops, sorry", Leah grimaced sheepishly as she let the sword come to rest at her side. Ray's eyes were wide

 

"Caredful, you almost took my head off!",

 

"Err... Ray...", Abbie coughed as she pointed to the floor. A severed curl of black hair lay there, dead.

 

"Sorry...", Leah apologised

 

"It's okay, it'll grow back", Ray shrugged as he brushed a hand through the mane of hair still connected to his head, "Just don't mess with the 'fro' again!", He chuckled

 

If the house had been described as 'full' before, then that was nothing to how it was now: More and more people arrived at the house, keen to help. Many had spilt into the back garden, some had left the home and decided to return later on when the hour of action returned - 11:00 pm. Tomo, Ray, Abbie and Leah were locked inside Shannon's bedroom. Leah and Ray sparring with swords, whereas Abbie and Tomo had chosen five foot wooden poled. Mikey and Frank were going through the plan with the mass of people downstairs.

 

"Are glorified sticks really going to help against vampires?", Abbie asked as she parryed a blow from Tomo

 

"Decapitating a vampire should kill it, according to the book", Leah replied, slightly breathless for she and Ray had continued their mock fight.

 

"Yeah, but can you decapitate something with a staff?", her eyebrows were raised, "Besides, I doubt there are enough Katanas for everyone here!",

 

"You never know what you may find in Bartholomew Cubbins' prop room...", Tomo shrugged. Leah paused deep in thought

 

"I'll be back now...", and with that she bolted from the room, butting here way through the roaring sea of people.

 

"What's she up to?", Ray asked scratching his forehead

 

"It's best not to ask, we'll find out soon enough".

 

They re-sheathed the swords, and carefully placed the weapons in Shannon's wardrobe, until they were next needed before the trio went to down to find Mikey and Ray.

 

They were both sitting in the Leto's dinning room with six other people, all nodded in welcome as Tomo, Abbie and Ray entered the room and drew up chairs. The book lay open in the middle of the table, surrounded by maps and papers of scribbled notes orbiting it like plants around the sun.

 

"How's it going guys?", Tomo asked

 

"We've decided to take a list of everyones names", Mikey pointed to a long list of people, "and that only those over 16 should be allowed to fight, we don't want people getting hurt",

 

"So far there are 92 names... that's a lot!", Frank elaborated.

 

"Hang on... how on earth are we going to transport 100 people across L.A without being noticed? If we just march though police will think we're rioting, and we can't exactly say: 'Don't worry we're just off to defeat some vampires!'",

 

Mikey sucked the tip of a pen, "Abbie has a point... any ideas?", He asked hopefully around at the half a dozen people, each wore an equally blank expression on their faces, shaking their heads.

 

"Well you're lucky you're in the presence of Raymond Toro then, aren't you!", Ray declared with false bravado, "It just so happens that I know a few truckers who really owe me one - long story, don't ask," He added in response to Tomo's raised eyebrow.

 

"Brilliant, that's sorted", Frank chirped inking a note down onto an already long list as Ray took out his phone and walked off to pursue a quieter location.

 

"Have you got anything more on destroying vampires?", Tomo asked

 

"Yeah-", Mikey was cut off by Abbie

 

"Wait a minute... Where's Leah!", Almost as soon as the words had left her mouth a cry of "TIMBER!", filled everyone's ears. Followed by a series of creaks and then an almighty crash.

 

"What in the name of red vines was that!", Frank exclaimed. It only took them to run outside for an answer.

 

Leah was stood proud over the felled body of a tree, axe in hand and foot on trunk.

 

"Leah... What have you done?", Abbie asked, mouth open slightly

 

"Well, we're fighting vampires! We need wooden stakes for about 100 people and I saw this big tree out here earlier so...", She looked confused by Tomo's mix of expressions: Halfway between horror and laughter, "Jared is going tokill you", He giggled

 

"Kill, Why?", She asked, laying down the axe and climbing the steps leading to the raised decking to join them and the waching crowd.

 

"Yeah, that was Bruce!"

 

"Bruce?"

 

"Bruce"

 

"Bruce... The Tree?" Leah repeated slowly, her eyebrows raised in amusement, "Jared names trees?..."

 

"Well not all, he ...'rescued' this one as a little sapling he - ah - 'raised' it here after taking it from France six years ago..."

 

"Please tell me he didn't sit on a plane with a tree between his legs!"

 

"He tried to", Tomo barked in laughter

 

"He's nuts", Abbie chuckled shaking her head

 

"But if it saves him he won't be complaining will he?", Leah defended with her arms  
crossed.

 

"You never know with Jay...", Tomo mused, "So Mikey, will staking a vampire work, or is it just movie shizz?"

 

Mikey frowned, "The book said that it can vary, it would severely injure them in any case, but decapitation seems to be most prudent"

 

"Nice...", Abbie grimaced

 

"Caspian's gonna get more than his head chopped off if he dares hurt Shannon!... Or Jared and Gerard, of course...", Leah coughed. Abbie smirked at her and winked. Leah's cheeks blushed a fierce red.

 

"I thought Shannon was receiving 'vibes' off you in the library, you couldn't take your eyes off him", Tomogrinned, "look's like he's got an admierer", she punched his arm lightly.

 

Leah coughed again, "Yeah, so -er- we'd better get back to training". Ray strolled in at that moment looking smug.

 

"All sorted, and yep, we should get back to training, just this time try not to take my head off!"

 

"Will do", She laughed as they went back to retrieve the swords from Shannon's room. Abbie and Frank followed, leaving Tomo and Mikey on the balcony. The tree was now being carved into dozens of lethal looking stakes by two burly boys, dressed in barely more than loincloths and caked in mud, whilst many of the other people talked in groups, quite oblivious to the struggles that were occurring mere miles from them, deep underground.

 

Tomo sniffed in the crisp night breeze, "When do we depart?"

 

"Ray said the trucks will be here around 11:00pm. You okay?", he asked patting Tomo's leather clad shoulder. He nodded slowly, "It's just... This is all mad, I mean yesterday I thought that Shannon had been hit too hard around the head and now there are 100 kids about to fight to get my two best friends back", Mikey nodded, "And the worst part is not knowing if they're okay", Tomo continued, "What if something's happened to them and I don't know?"

 

"We're doing everything we can Tome. They'll be okay... They have to be okay!", Mikey's hand slid off his shoulder as he turned to leave.

 

"Mikey, do you really think Caspian gave us that book?",

 

Mikey shrugged, "Dunno, but I found a name on the inside back cover: Garward... Must be Caspian's nickname or something", He laughed

 

"Yeah... Must be...", Tomo breathed as he turned back and looked up. Night had pulled its ebony curtain over the sky, suffocating the sun. Little jewles peered through the oblivion, defying the darkness, shinning pin pricks of light guiding those on earth. Guarding like billions of heathen Gods. Tomo smiled and closed his eyes. He would get them back. He just had to believe.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Caspian's heavy, booted footsteps echoed off the silent stone catacombs. Any life form shrinking in submission at his shadow. Only the gentle padding of Kirus' paws mingled with the noise.

 

"Are you sure about this, brother?", Kirus asked looking harsh

 

"Yes of course!" He replied tersely

 

"They are one of us now, though..."

 

"They will never be one of use, they are just vital for this stage of the plan, after that... They become disposable",Caspian's head was high with contempt.

 

"Yes, but they plan is not yet complete! And by killing him -"

 

"- It will not kill him", Caspian interrupted

 

"It did the four others", Kirus was becoming annoyed by his brother's arragance.

 

"If you do not wish to be present, then please leave, go and check on the other one... I want to know what he is up to",

 

"If you had stuck to the plan! It was foolish letting him go last week!", His hackles were rising.

 

"I was hoping he would bring back the third one on a rescue mission"

 

"And how did that one work out for you?"

 

"Please Kirus! I am in no mood to argue", Caspian waved his hand. The dog huffed before trotting off in the opposite direction.

 

Noises, voices, lights, all began seeping through the gloom as the tunnel widened. Soon, Caspian stood at the threshold of a large cavern. Many people, or rather creatures, seemed to be living here.

 

Holes had been cut into the rocks, little beds and homes for the creatures to sleep. Even a well had been dug in the center of the large, rocky room. A gathering crowd encircled a pile of animal carcasses that had been taken from the forest, the more human-like creatures ate with rudimentary tools, whereas the beast just used snouts and claws.

 

All manners of creatures resided here. Some would have been instantly recognisable from legends and literature. Vampires and unturned werewolves, barely distinguishable from humans if not for their pallid complexion. A large winged dog touched down from flight, spikes protruding from its black flesh like a stegosaurus, it also seemed to be exhaling smoke. Gargantuan forms swooped overhead, some a mismatch of animals: Gryiffins and the likes and others seemed part human. A large bird glimmered gold as it shot through the air, a trail of fire in its wake.

 

A child ran in circles through the crowd, feathered wings sprouting from her naked back, zooming past a dignified horse that pawed at the ground. Exept it wasn't a horse, A spiralled azure horn adorned his forehead. He looked up with pride and grace in his turquoise eyes. The mane and tail was a mass of not hair, but fire, blue fire that danced off the horse. It was a truly breathtaking creature.

 

Caspians presence brought instant hush from the hubbub. All heads turning to him.

 

"We are close now, close to our revolution and then my friends you shall hide no more! We will be free." Most cheered at this. A lion-like creature close to Caspian thudded its tail in approval.

 

"How will we do it?", asked the young auburn child

 

"All will be revealed soon... In fact, Dustin", Caspian called. The teenage looking vampire steeped out, reluctantly, from the crowd, "Ah, perfect, come with me please", Dustin followed Caspian as he crossed to the other end of thecavern. They took the furthest left of three possible options at a fork. It was the least welcoming.

 

"Sir, why do you want me?", Dustin asked, his eyes wide and burning in the low torch light.

 

"I have another subject for the test", Caspian grinned, whereas Dustin was horrified, "But-"

 

"Silence! Or it shall be you next", He ordered.

 

They were back in the den's dungeons. Caspian withdrew his keys, sobbing was coming from behind the door they stood at, the door that was inscribed with a '10'.

 

"Sir?", Dustin was scared and confused. Caspian smirked at him before opening the door.

 

Jared's eyes were red and swollen with the tears falling down his cheeks. He was paler, if possible, than before and looked completely distraught. Dustin turned his head to see what Jared was staring at. His brother, Shannon, was slumped against the wall only held up by his arms that were tied to the wall. He was still, completely still. Unmoving, eye's closed and body bathed in sweat and blood. Unconscious or worse:

 

"What happened? Is he..."

 

Caspian only grinned maddeningly in answer.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Quarter to eleven. Six people stood waiting in the front garden of a house on an uptown street. They were allabsurdly dressed and talking anxiously. No neighbours took in any of their frantic conversations for they ignored them: Many strange events had occurred with the Leto family; they ignored them just as they ignored the mass of people that had marched up the street and just as they ignored the dark shadow that has padded up the street and now lingered within a bush.

 

It sat with its eyes narrowed, drinking in the human's conversation. Once it had its fill, Kirus' eyes were wide. He sprinted back through the street, desperate.

 

"Are you sure they're coming, Ray?", Frank asked as he peered down the street on his tip-toes.

 

"Definatly", Ray gave a stiff nod, "we just have to wait".

 

"Right... So Me, Abbie and Tomo will go to find Jared and Shannon. Mikey and ray will try to find Gerard and Hayley.", Leah recited the plan, "And Frank and half of the army will go in before us to create a diversion. Then, Lilly and Johnny will go in ten minutes after with their team." Tomo nodded, "We just hope that it's that simple"

 

The front door swung open and out walked two teenage girls, one, Lilly, had electric blue hair and Johnny with long dark hair.

 

"Hey girls", Tomo greeted

 

"Hi", They both replied, smiling

 

"You guys know what you're doing?", Mikey asked.

 

"Of course", Johnny replied in a thick Norwegian accent. Many Echelon had traveled to America from all corners of the globe once they had heard the news that shattered them.

 

"Oh, hang on", Lilly began to pat down her pockets, "damn, I've left the map inside"

 

"No bother", Mikey smiled as he reached inside the drawstring satchel he wore around his shoulders and withdrew a copy of the map showing the Den's many twisting tunnels.

 

"Thanks", Lilly beamed

 

"Has everyone who needs one got a stake?", Frank asked the girls

 

"yep, we've given them to everyone over 16"

 

"And anyone younger will stay here just in case"

 

"Yep, and all leaders will have 'walkie talkies' so we can communicate if needs be."

 

They stood in silence for a few minutes, their anxious faces illuminated by the moon's secondary light. The windwhipped their hair and clothes, the cold burrowing down, slicing their skin and inhabiting their bones causing them to ache. The roar of large engines shattered the silence and reached their ears before they saw two monstrous trucks lurching up the street.

 

An eagle screeched from in high, it's small shadow briefly extinguishing the stars as it tore through the infinite sea above.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jared was scared, more scared than he had been perhaps in his life. All he could do was pray and beg the lifeless form of his brother to wake up. Shannon was not moving, barely breathing, if breathing at all.

 

The door gave a metallic scream as it opened, but Jared paid it no attention, he just kept staring straight into the skin that blocked the hazel eyes. Caspian's goading voice was the only thing that made him look round.

 

"Thank god he's stopped screaming at least!", He chuckled, "Well this is a pathetic sight, afraid that 'little Shanny's'dead are we Jared?", Venomous hatred rose inside Jared. A caged snake fighting the restraints, wanting nothingmore than to sink it's fangs into it's victim.

 

"Untie me and face me like a man so that I can rip your fucking head off!" Jared screamed as his body twisted andstruggled to free himself, "You bastard!"

 

Dustin watched horrified, but fear of repercussions prevented him from aiding Jared.

 

_The dog flew up the street, panting. Paws barely touching the ground_

 

"Calm yourself Leto!", Caspian raised his hand, "God you are so protective of each other... He is not dead", Jared stopped struggling, the smallest trace of a smile on his lips. Even Dustin looked relieved and stole another glance at Shannon.

 

"He's not?", Jared's eyes closed and let out a shaky laugh of relief, "But... you, your dog, Kirus, poisoned him!"

 

_He had reached the old industrial site. Muscles burning with effort, but he did not slow down. This was urgent._

 

"It was not poison. He is merely in a deep sleep, his body exhausted."

 

"Then wake him up. Please"

 

"I will, do not worry. However, it is probably better for you if he remains asleep", Confusion dropped Jared's face

 

_His furred body was behind the warehouse, at the hole that Shannon had uncovered. He allowed himself an iota of time to stop and breathe as the full moon escaped the cluthces of the clouds, then jumped_

 

"Don't you remember when you first turned? The violence, the rage, you could not control yourself. Now tell me. Do you really want him to wake up?"

 

"Sh-Shannon... He would never... why do this to him?"

 

"Oh, he isn't a vampire, Jared", Caspian purred

 

_Plunged into darkness, through the tunnels he tore, a black hurricane. Barely distinguishable from the surrounding darkness, save for the ghost of wind left in his wake._

 

"Th-Then...what?", Jared's eyes were huge

 

"Can't you guess?", Caspian smirked

 

"Werewolf...", Dustin breathed. Caspian nodded, Jared gasped in horror. From an inside pocket of his trench coat Caspian withdrew a small glass syringe filled with a heliotrope coloured liquid.

 

"Caspian, please, you'll kill him", Dustin begged, Caspian ignored him and pierced Shannon's arm with the needle and pushed the liquid in. Almost immediately Shannon's eyes flickered open. Dustin shot Jared a melancholic look.

 

"Leave him alone!", Jared cried

 

Caspian stood up and walked to a point furthest from the door before stretching to full height, standing on the tips of his toes, arms raised. His hand easily touched the low ceiling and dislodged a camouflaged panel in the rockyceiling, sliding it open, exposing a long shaft that went up to the surface. It allowed a trickle of white light down to the dim room

 

"Lucky it's a full moon, eh?"

 

_Kirus was shooting through the tunnels like a bullet. He was fast approaching the large cavern. His breath sharp in his chest._

Shannon roared with pain as the light hit him. His body shuddering and muscles contorting, growing, fighting the restraints of skin. With each second he became less of himself, physically and mentally. Thick brown fur covered his once pale skin. He had pulled himself free of the chains with his rippling muscles.

 

_Faster, faster. Denying his body of the rest it screamed as he maneuvered through the crowd of creatures._

 

Shannon was now completely unrecognisable. What had once been man was now caught between the boundary of man and canine. A wolf that stood upright, far removed from Kirus' appearance, who was almost exactly like a dog. The beast paused, breathing deeply through its soft nose, examining its paws. He was almost twice the size of a normal man, his clothes lying in tatters.

 

"C-Caspian", Dustin shook fearfully as the yellow, inhuman eyes stared straight at him. Jared was cowering in fear. Caspian, however, did not share in the anxiety. He calmly withdrew a gun-like object. Shannon raised a clawed paw, ready to strike Dustin, who was frozen in fear, dead. Caspian walked up to the back of the werewolf and placed themuzzle of the object to his skin. The effect was instantaneous. Shannon's body gave a massive lurch and shudder before slumping to the ground, paralyzed. Dustin breathed a small sight of relief, Jared opened his eyes.

 

"I'll be back...", Caspian purred before exiting the room.

 

"What is going on?", Jared demanded

 

"I-I", Dustin's words died, unwilling to form.

 

"Dustin, please!" Jared urged. Unable to look at his brother's new, terrifying form, lying on the cold ground.

 

Dustin took a deep breath, "Caspian's a dirty hypocrite! For all this talk of 'freedom' and 'rights' he carries out experiments on creatures... or to be more exact, he captures humans and turns them first. For months now he's been trying to create the 'ultimate' creature. And I'm afraid that you're... you're his next 'subject'", An iced hand gripped at Jared's heart, winding him. Shannon was still unmoving when Caspian reentered the room with a length of chain. Only his wolfish eyes could move, they swivelled furiously in their sockets.

 

_Kirus was almost at the other tunnel when he collided, full force, with a large furred creature._

 

Caspian had restrained Shannon with the thick chain placed around his neck. Another does of an unknown substance had reversed the previous' effects; Shannon's wolfish form was struggling against the chain that both Caspian, and now Dustin, held.

 

_"OI! Carefull!... Oh, it's you Kirus, sorry mate" The bear-like creature gruffed as Kirus got to his paws, swaying._

 

The large shinning orbs of Jared's eyes were screaming, pleading his brother to stop. Jared found himself in the position he had been with Hayley, but this time it was worse, much worse.

 

"Shannon, please! Shannon! I'm your brother! Please remember! Please Stop! It's Jared! Jay...", Jared cried. Shannon remained quite indifferent, unknowing. There was no recognition in his cruel, animalistic eyes. He had no idea what he was doing, nor to whom as his jaw hung open, revealing a perfectly sharp set of teeth, and that scared Jared most.  
 _Kirus could hear screams coming from the tunnels, he shot down them, ignoring the throbbing in his head and side._

 

The teeth were mere inches from Jared's torso, the hot, sticky breath tingling Jared's skin. His chest rising and falling frantically. A cornered rabbit in the jaws of the hunter.

 

"Don't worry Jared, this won't hurt a bit", Caspians words sickened Dustin as he watched Jared who could only whimper useless pleas to the brother who was lost to the moon.

 

"This is wrong!" He shouted

 

_He was so close now, the cells in reach. He had to stop Caspian._

 

The wolf-man was pulling on the chain, desperate to lurch forward and sink its teeth into the writhing flesh below. The cold metal at its neck prevented it.

 

_Nearly there. Number 10 was in sight, door open._

 

Caspian looked into Jared's tear filled eyes, a sadistic smile on his lips. He slacked his grip on the chain

 

**BAM!**

 

Followed by a scream.

 

A large, hairy bullet shot through the doorway, colliding straight with Shannon

 

"They're coming!", kirus barked, "Their friends have prepared and army, they're coming now!"

 

Caspian froze, the moon light threw his features in to rare relief, his green eyes held a trace of fear.

 

Dustin shook his head. Shannon had been thrown against the wall, Kirus was now untangling himself from the furry heap. The large blow to Shannon's head seemed to have returned his mind to normal, dazed, but thekindness had reappeared in his eyes. Caspian's eyes snapped back into focus.

 

"They cannot stay here!"

 

And for the first time they all looked at Jared. Kirus was too late. Fresh blood gushed from a large bite wound that had broken several ribs. His skin looked paler by the second and little beads of sweat continued to emerge.

 

"Caspian! You know the blood of a vampire and werewolf should NEVER be mixed", Kirus growled.

 

Shannon was still struggling to digest the scene, the voices were echoed and sounded like and poorly tuned radio, his vision blurred.

 

"He's dying!", Dusting gasped as he looked at Jared's helpless form, "Just like the other poor people you did this too!"


	8. Chapter 7: Division Will Unite

Caspian tore through the tunnels, almost running. Kirus having to canter behind to keep up whilst furiously being fired questions.

 

"how many in this army? It can't be many!"

 

"I don't know, I got the feeling it was a lot though," Caspian snorted

 

"When are they coming?"

 

"Again, not sure, they seemed to want to be here at 12:00"

 

"Hmm, that gives us enough time..."

 

The tunnel now slopped significantly up, slowing Caspian's pace. They soon reached a door, which was thrown open effortlessly.

 

It seemed to cower in Caspian's shadow. Man and dog now stood inside the ground floor of warehouse. The door which Jared and Shannon had walked through, visible through the gloom. Caspian walked over and entered his office, Kirus closebehind.

 

"Capian, please! By the sound of it most of them are just kids. Just don't kill unecessarily! We've had enough ofthat today,"

 

"You never cease to amaze me Kirus! Who's side are you actually on? 'Cause the way your talking you don't want this to happen!"

 

"Yours of course, brother -",

 

"Good! Do not worry yourself, Kirus, I have a plan," Kirus sighed inaudibly, his brother's all consuming thirst for power would soon be his downfall, he was sure of it.

 

Caspian opened a small draw underneath the desk and pushed a small, black button inside it. A loud blaring alarm screeched through the air. A disembodied scream that filled the catacombs, warning the inhabitants something was wrong, signalling all creatures to come to 'The Dens' head quarters.

 

"You said that they'll come in through the tunnels. Well they won't have any trouble getting in, but getting out..."

 

Soon, every creature stood within the warehouse entrance, Caspian stood at his office doorway, animatedly emitting instructions.

 

Well, almost all creatures.

 

"What's that?", Hayley cried, covering her ears against the noise. She cowered against her cellmate, his hands too covered his ears, fingers entangled in his dyed red hair.

 

"Maybe there's an intruder," Gerard Way answered hopefully. The noise had died, but its ghost still lingered in their ears.

 

Hayley looked up into his deep chocolate eyes. She had been placed in the same cell as him after trying to escape with Jared,

 

"I'm glad you're here to keep me company,"

 

"Me too, I just hope he's OK," Gerard knew she was talking about Jared,

 

"He will be, don't worry... He's strong,"

 

"But didn't you hear those screams? They were his Gee, I'm sure of it," Hayley shivered. Gerard looked at her with sad eyes, hoping she wasn't right. He had always been close friends with Jared.

 

He leaned his head against the wall, wondering how on earth he had gotten himself into this mess. He had a vague memory of a club, maybe a phone call and he had stumbled outside for some air, hadn't he? All he was sure of was he woke up alone, with a splitting headache, his throat on fire, covered in blood and in a cell, the cell he was in now, with the body of a young man lying next to him covered him blood.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

"Ooohooohoooooooh, ooohooohoooooooh; Into the night, desperate and broken; the sound of our fight, fartherhas spoken; oohooohoooh"

 

Tomo would never be quite sure how they had managed to fit the hurricane of humans into two freight trucks, but they did. They all sat in the otherwise empty vehicles, chatting, singing and playing hand games with one another. It seemed that the possible dangers that lay before them had been forgotten and lost to the merriment. Abbie and Leah seemed in their own world, talking and laughing - the word 'notebook' appearing several times. Ray was upfront with the drivers, guffawing with two leather clad man as they steered the wheeled vessel. Frank was with Johnny and Lilly in the truck behind, along with half of the fighters. That left Mikey and Tomo who sat leaning against the truck's side next to Tomo. Both leafed through the book for last minute advise.

 

The truck began to jar as it moved upwards. The suspension being tested as the wheels crashed against rocks and fell into pot-holes. They had reached the mountain that housed 'The Den'.

 

Tomo stood up, ready to address the crowd however, he was thrown sideways as the truck lurched, causing a roar ofmalice-less laughter. He coughed as he balanced himself once more, cheeks slightly flushed.

 

"Right everyone, remeber what team you're on. 'Team A', you're with Frank. 'Team B' with Lilly and Johnny. Just please keep safe,"

 

Tomo pleaded. One member of the crowd stood up, smile on her face, fist punching the air.

 

"PROVEHITO IN ALTUM!", She cried through neon green painted lips. All followed suite until the vehicle shook from more than just the engine. A little hatch opened up at the front of the truck. A pair of bovine-brown eyes shone through.

 

"We're here!", Ray announced, the truck coming to a shudering halt, the engine spluttering as it died. Ray had soon walked around and opened the door.

 

"Stay together and be quiet," Tomo called as the tie-dye sea crashed towards the open land.

 

All now stood in the illuminating light of the 'Hollywood' sign.

 

A small group had begun to search for the concealed entrance to 'The Den', following the map as reference.

 

The two trucks rolled back down the dirt track, their engines echoing through the night, mingling with the cities traffic.

 

"Found it", Mikey called excitedly. Indicating that 'The Den's' entrance had been discovered.

 

"Awesome! Right, 'Team A' go with Frank now," Tomo clapped his hands together and rubbed them.

 

"'Team A'!", Frank scoffed, "there ain't no way my team is gonna have such a crap name! Imagination guys... 'Team Viper'"

 

"Team Viper?" Ray smirked "I thought you'd be more 'Team Edward' or 'Team Potter' -"Frank punched his arm "- Ow!"

 

"okay, okay fine. Frank you can be leader of 'Team Viper'... 'Team B'," Tomo though for a moment, "you can be 'Team Stipe' as in a tiger's stripe," Everyone nodded appreciatively.

 

"Come on back to business! Frank you and 'Team... Viper' go in! Remember to contact us first sign of trouble or anything, and please, this isn't a game!" Mikey's chocolate eyes dripped concern.

 

"It's just a new beginning!" one member of the army began to sign, soon ever member joined in. Leah and Abbie's voices distinguishable on top of the others

 

"But the bottom line it's time to pay, you know you've got it coming... THIS IS WAR!"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

Behind Frank around fifty people crept through the dim tunnels. In his hand he held the only thing that illuminated their surroundings: A plastic torch. No other living creature seemed anywhere near, and whether ir not that comforted or disconcerted Frank he did not know. Withdrawing a black 'walkie-talkie' he placed in ti his mouth. It crackled in to life as he applied pressure in a button.

 

"'Team Viper' to 'Team Bear'"

 

"Frank! For the last time I am NOT being 'Team Bear'!" Tomo's distorted voice called out. In the background anotet voice could be heard: Mikey's

 

"Guys! Does it really matter?"

 

"Okay, Okay!" Frank cut across, "There is no one here! I mean no one! Seriously... All the torches are out as well, it's like every one has... Dissapeared..."

 

"... We're coming in then"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

"Ready?" Tomo asked the four others who nodded. They walked behind the gargantuan letters, feet crunching the scrub like gravel, the last team getting smaller and smaller as they stood watching.

 

"In here," Mikey prompted before running his hand along a foliage covered rock face that had already been significantly uncovered by the previous storm of people. Together they began to move the green mass of leaves and vines, revealing a large hole in the die of the mountain. Tomo entered first, followed by Abbie, Leah, Mikey and Ray.

 

Frank had been right, it was dark and deserted. The faint moon light had disappeared after the tunnel took the first turn.

 

Each of them took out a torch, five beacons of light fumbled in the dark. Mikey took out the original map and studied it.

 

"If we're here... - The cells are by here - then we have to go along here- ," He traced a path with his index finger, " - and through this big room thing... The only problem is is that it is labeled as -,"

 

"-'Living Quarters'," Tomo breathed as he read the sprawled writing.

 

"...Shit...," Ray raked his fingers through his hair. Tomo pulled out the 'walkie-talkie' again.

 

"Frank, come in Frank, it's Tomo,"

 

"Yerp! I'm here,"

 

"Have you seen anything yet?"

 

"Apart from rats and cobwebs, not a soul... Do cobwebs have souls? That would be weird if they did,"

 

"FRANK! Please, focus! Where are you now?"

 

"Oh... Er, yes, sorry... Errr, just taken a left, heading for the 'Living Quarters' now,"

 

"We're heading there now too, but on the path,"

 

"Right, we'll meet you there then, if everything goes smoothly,"

 

"KK, over and out," With that the crackling died

 

"'KK'?" Mikey giggled

 

"What?" Defended Tomo. Mikey shook his head and patted him

 

"Come on,"

 

They descended deeper into the labyrinth, cobwebs and tree roots clawing at their hair and clothes. The light casting anerie celestial glow, juxtaposing the damp, dark underground prison they were held in.

 

"What's down there, Mikey?" Leah pointed down a smaller 'child' passageway.

 

"Just a dead end... Come on, we go straight ahead,"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

"This can't be good..." Frank had just reached the almost infinitely large cavern marked 'Living Quarters' on the map. It was empty, devoid of life. He looked around tentatively, hoping that unknown beings would not jump out of the strange orifices made in the rock walls. The mass of Frank's team stood huddled together once all filed in. Some looked determined, others, nervous.

 

"Someone's coming!" A small red-headed girl squeaked. It took a moment after Frank's body tensed, senses on high-alert, to realise that he recognised the voices. He let out an audible sigh of relief as Tomo's face appeared round the craggy rocks, followed by Ray's, Leah's, Mikey's and Abbies's.

 

"I just don't get it. There must be something down here!" Mikey looked baffled.

 

"Exactly, this is, what, the biggest institute for mythical beings... and, nothing, Zilch, zero, Nadda," Frank elaborated

 

"So what now?" Leah asked.

 

"We will need to go find them. Frank I dunno what you guys should do... nor the other team, though," Tomo stroked his beard.

 

"Well, I'm going to find my brother!" Mikey looked fierce.

 

"What if it's a trap?" Frank asked, concerned. Mikey sighed.

 

"I don't care, as long as I see him!" He was so close now, needing to speak to him at last. Tomo looked pleased by this,

 

Mikey's determination multiplying his.

 

"That's the way, Way," Tomo jumped up, clapping him on the back as he did before half-skipping-half-running backwards towards the other end of the room, "Lets go and find them!" Mikey and Ray ran with him, Leah giggled and Abbie shrugged at Frank as they followed, he was sure he heard Abbie and Leah singing 'The Kill' as they skipped arm in arm.

 

"Okay, see you later 'Team Bear',"

 

"Fuck off!" Tomo replied flipping him the bird with his tongue out as they were swallowed by the tunnel to the furthest left.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

"Hurry!"

 

They were all sprinting down the lifeless passage way. Their torches creating a psychedelic light show in the tunnel; their bodies jarring as they ran. Cheers punctured the panting once the tunnel ended and opened up. A sense of urgency descended now.

 

There was no room for error or joking, they needed to find those captured and leave before anyone got hurt

 

"I didn't think there'd be this many cells..." Mikey breathed, horrified. No one else looked please by this discoveryeither. At least fifteen imposing, steel doors were buried at regular intervals into the rock. Ray ran up to one and used his shoulder as a battering ram. Resounding iron thuds filled their ears, but the door did not yield.

 

"Shit!" He yelled, punching the door, "they could be in any one," ray started to pace around the room, arms open, "GERARD, JARED, HAY-",

 

"-Quiet," Tomo hissed, hand over Ray's mouth, "You'll wake the dead".

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*

 

"Oops... Did I forget to unlock the cells? Silly me," Caspian smirked observing the monitor in front of him. With it he had watched all the events that were unfolded in 'The Den' that night. He had ordered the creatures outside to notbreathe a sound and

 

they obeyed, locked inside the warehouse's interior. Kirus sat beside Caspian in his office.

 

"Are you planning on letting them in?"

 

"Of course," Caspian grinned, watching Ray Toro scream as he now resorted to kicking the iron door and the other's futile attempts to calm him.

 

Reaching into his desk draw, revealing a control panel akin to that on a space ship, Caspian flicked a small metallic switch,

 

"There we go, that should spice things up... Get the popcorn, Kirus,"


	9. Chapter 8: A Question Of Sport

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter

A loud yell caused Tomo to spin around, tossed from his thoughts his brain almost clunking with effort to construct a ploy. The door which Ray had been battering for the past few minutes had finally decided to obey; it had swung open, revealing a musky cell complete with the tangled heap of Ray Toro in the middle of the floor.

 

"I was not expecting that!" Ray shook his head as he stumbled to his feet. They could not help but laugh at the shock on Ray's features.

 

"Hang on... Does that mean?" Tomo ran forwards to the next door, it opened with very little pressure, but no one was inside,"Qucik, split up, open every door!"

 

A noise descended upon their ears, turning them to statues, as though cursed. It was a girl's voice calling somethingsounding very much like: "Help,"

 

"Hayley," Tomo breathed before bolting to find the right, "Hayley! Hayley, where are you?" Another muffled cry, this time mingled with a male's, followed by a banging.

 

"Over here!" Leah cried pointing to the door nearest her before rushing forwards to open it.

 

Two people practicaly fell through the threshold; a boy and girl, both with flaming hair.

 

"GERARD!" Mikey threw himself onto his older brother, clinging on as though he was the only rock above a waterfall, "I missed you so fucking much!"

 

"Me too... I thought I'd never see you again..." They broke apart, thrown back to reality and the present situation. Raywalked up to Gerard, arms open and brought the faux redhead into an artery crushing 'man hug'. A moment of calm followed as all severn beamed at each other. They were lost in the reunion and after much hugging, 'thankyou's' and 'I'm so glad we found you's' Hayley smiled at Abbie and Leah, prompting an introduction.

 

"Oh, I'm Leah and this is Abbie," She nodded at Gerard and Hayley, the four exchanging hand shakes.

 

"Where's Shannon?" Gerard asked looking around.

 

"I was hoping you would have seen him... He came to rescue you guys a few hours ago..."

 

"We haven't seen him I'm afraid," Hayley answered shaking her head, "or Jared... Although-"Gerard shook his head to stop Hayley.

 

"'Although' what?"

 

"Nothing, nothing, it's nothing... We'll find them. I heard Caspian's cronies saying something about 'Cell 10',"

 

It was only then that Tomo realised that the doors had been numbered, they currently stood outside number '5'.

 

"There!" Ray indicated to the tenth cell. Mikey got there first, throwing open the door screaming: "Jared! Shannon! JARED! SHANNON!"

 

Only one figure lay in the shadows. They were bound at the wrists and ankles in the fetal position, blindfolded and gaged. The side of their face partially illuminated by the moonlight spilling through a shaft. Something was wrong: They were neitherShannon nor Jared.

 

"Dustin!" Hayley cried, running to his side and tugging furiously at his bonds, the others got the idea and helped her until Dustin lay free on the floor. He was shaking slightly and his eyes raw from a sea of tears.

 

"What happened?" Hayley breathed, "Where's Jared and Shannon?" Dustins eyes grew to twice their size at the mention of their names, he shook his head like a hysterical child, "Dustin please... was that scream... was it Jared?"

 

"Jared? Scream? What are you talking about?" Tomo demanded, aghast.

 

"C-Caspian..." Whispered Dustin. Hayley and Gerard exchanged worried looks.

 

"Caspian? What's he done?" Fear shot through Tomo's body.

 

"Take us to them..." Hayley pleaded a hand on Dustins thigh. After a minute's stare he nodded, slowly. Hayley smiled at him.

 

The large hand on Tomo's watch moved five full intervals before they were all out of the cell. Dustin had very fewphysical injuries, but he had clearly witnessed something that had turned his legs into spindly straws. All the while as they walked deeper and deeper into the maze Tomo felt sick, 'what had happened? Were they okay? What if after all of this something had already happened? - No! Don't think that!'

 

The tunnel ahead sloped upwards, there was no visible alternate route.

 

"Are you sure Dustin? this leads up to the warehouse."

 

Dustin nodded and stumbled over to the side of the tunnel and began to knock. Confusion morphed to comprehensionand soon all eight were tapping the rock, ears strained for a deviation in pitch.

 

"Whaa!" Leah lept back in surprise as her hand had just triggered the rock to shudder and shift like virgin flesh beneath her hand, "I'm guessing this is what we were looking for..."

 

The outline of a segment of rock, just high and wide enough to permit a large adult male, was carved by hundreds ofinvisible pick axes before their eyes. It pushed out of the rock face before moving sideways to uncover another tunnel barely larger than its entrance.

 

"Wow... Talk about Harry Potter!" Abbie breathed.

 

"I'll say, That's Diagon Alley right there, just less shops and cheery music, and more doom, gloom and spiders" Leah commented

 

"What is this, Dustin? It isn't on the map" Mikey asked, filing through the entrance behind Tomo.

 

"It leads to a little known part of 'The Den', as the 'oh-so' conspicuous entrance may have revealed, Caspian uses it when his actions are slightly more... sadistic and unorthodox. This just leads to another large caverns. He uses it for...testing" Dustin immediatley wished he could withdraw his words for they stabbed fear into his party. He shook his head, and instead changed the subject, "What map?"

 

Mikey began to explain the map and book and all were very confused when Dustin insisted he had never seen of norheard of it before, this struck Tomo as very weird indeed.

 

The torches shone bright, but could not illuminate the gunpowder-black atmosphere nor melt the verbal silence. Only the reflecting thud of sole on rock and the monotonous drip of water registered in their ears.

 

"Where is everyone?" Hayley may well have fired a bullet for the sudden noise crashed upon their eardrums.

 

"Well, area is very much on a 'need to know' basis -"

 

"Yes, but earlyer on, we've seen nothing, no forms of life, not even in the 'living quarters'!"

 

Dustin shook his head, flummoxed, his mosey hair licking his eyes, "that's very odd indeed," Caspian was planning something, he knew it. The unsettling feeling released a mouse into his abdomen that began to nibble on his stomach.

"Dustin... you said 'testing'?" Tomo furrowed his brows.

 

"Caspian likes to develop various items that he believes will help him succeed in his plan" Dustin the - for Tomo, Mikey, Ray, Leah and Abbie's sake - elaborated on Caspians plan.

 

"That bastard!" Tomo growled.

 

"So Jared and Shannon are down here, why?" Ray asked. Dustin's answer was to lead the group at a violent left. Three doors were in front of them.

 

"I have to warn you..."

 

"Wait, Dustin, why were you tied up in that cell? Why weren't Jay and Shann in there?"

 

"Because, Tomo, they were... Caspian wanted me to 'help' him,. After he had done it I freaked, tried to stop him so he turned on me and I'm guessing took them here as Kirus warned him that you guys were coming... I hope-"

 

"So Caspian knows we are here?" Tomo gasped

 

"Of course that is why it is very worrying that you have seen no-one, we have to be quick!"

 

He wrenched open the middle door, which was surprisingly unlocked. Inside were hundreds upon hundreds of jars containing various liquids and powders.

 

"Woah"

 

"It's like an underground pharmacy" Ray blinked

 

"I highly doubt any of these contain paracetamol," Dustin warned. He pointed to an electric blue liquid, "That's what heused to knock Shannon unconscious for those five days, no wonder the doctors were baffled... and that reverses paralysis."

 

"Mmmm, smells like almonds," Ray had his nose in a jar full of what looked like fluffy sand.

 

"NO! Do NOT eat it! It's got cyanide in it!"

 

"Shit!" Ray practically threw the jar back to the shelf.

 

They exited the store cupboard.

 

The next door's contents were disapointingly empty, as were the next's.

 

"I don't get it... They should be here!" Dustin cried.

 

"Wait!" Gerard pointed to the left wall of the room: Another door. Dustin got there first, it was locked.

 

"This is just great!" Tomo snarled, "And YOU!" he rounded on Dustin, concern for his friends taking over his normallydocile and kind nature, "What has Caspian done with them! Why are they here?"

 

"Tomo! Tomo stop, calm down!" Hayley commanded as Tomo made to grab Dustin's shirt.

 

"I-I-I can't, I'm sorry Tomo..." Tears began to rim his water line.

 

"Look kid, you know something we do not and if you don't want to end up with your nose up your arse!"

 

"TOMO please!" Hayley grabbed his shoulder, "I know your worried, but it isn't Dustin's fault!"

 

Tomo deflated with a sigh, lids covered eyes for a second, anger exiting him. She was right. Dustin composed him self,becoming less of a terrified rabbit by the seconds.

 

"I have a key.." Dustin withdrew a small set of keys from his pocket, "Caspian always trusted me enough to give me these." Tomolooked incredibly sheepish, the flesh not covered by a black bush was maroon.

 

He shoved the rusting black key into the lock and turned.

 

xXx

Shannon raised his head from his brother's damp hair as he heard the door open. Instinctivly he brought Jared closer to his body, hugging him tighter, peering into the ever increasing gap in the doorway.

 

xXx

Tomo was first to recognise the huddled mass in the middle of the room, first to fall through the threshold, first to scream:"Shannon! Jared!", first to realise that something was horrible wrong. Tomo flung himself at Shannon who grabbed him with one arm and started crying hysterically into his friend's shoulder.

 

"It's my fault! It's my fault!" He sobbed.

 

"Wha-?" Then Tomo looked straight at Jared curled into Shannon's body, only his face and limbs were visible, but that was enough "Fuck..."

 

He was as pale as the moon far above, drenched in sweat and caked in blood, a scarlet river trickled from his trembling lips. He was conscious, but barely. "Shann... What happened?" Shannon shook his head, tears splashed onto Jared'scollarbone.

 

"Shannon is a... Werewolf" The group turned to Dustin, each as exasperated as the next. Dustin purposefully did not look at Jared's shaking form, "Caspian turned Shannon - well Kirus did -, He forced Shannon to bite Jared, Shannon did not know what the was doing, but Jared's already a vampire, both blood flows through his veins... destroying him," He hung his head before muttering, almost inaudible, "I'm sorry"

 

"You mean there's nothing you can do," Shannon was aghast, letting out a howl as Dustin shook his head

 

"H-how long?..." No one could believe that something so pallid and frail could muster the strength to breathe, let alone speak, but neither could they deny that it had been Jared who spoke. His eyes were open revealing bloodshotorbs that no longer contained their azure shine. Dustin's throat ran dry, parched, as though he had been chewing onsalt. He had witnessed this four times more that he wished, watched Caspian destroy perfectly innocent people from the inside, he knew from previous expirience that Jared should already be dead - he did not look far from it. Dustin knew it could be hours, minutes... seconds, but how do you tell a person that? Dustin's silence was enough, Jared closed his eyes, the smallest if tears crept down his cheekand fell to the floor.

 

"No...NO! C-Caspian will fix him! YOU HEAR THAT YOU BASTARD? YOU WILL FIX HIM!" Shannon screamed to the room, to Caspian. Little did he know that Caspian could heat them, that he had just drawn a small chuckle from Caspian's cold lips.

 

"Shann... shh... It'll be alright," Shannon stopped upon his brother's wish. The room was silent except for the soft sniffled of Hayley. Jared seemed to deteriorate in front of their very eyes. His veins protruded through his impossibly white skin, it was a horrific sight.

"We have to get him out of here," Mikey commanded

 

"You can't move him!" Dusitn replied.

 

"We have to try, what are we gonna do just sit here and wait for Caspian to come? The guy is a nut job!"

 

"Fine... Jared can you sit up?" Dustin finished the sentence with far more tenderness than he started with. As Shannonmoved to help his brother the room inhaued violently. Jared's left side was a mangles mess, a few if his ribs were visiblethrough the ruptured flesh, as white as stars in a scarlet sky. He tries to move, but turned a nasty Shade of green before slumping back down.

 

"I'll carry you..." Shannon said as he carefully slipped one arm beneath his brother's cold neck and another under hisknees before standing. In another situation Shannon would have been highly embarrassed by the fact that he was completely naked. The change from man to wolf and back had resulted in his clothes lying in tatters back in the other cell. That did not stop him from becoming greatly relived when Leah rushed forwards with her jacket, Tomo helped stable Jared as Shannon tied the material around his 'area'.

 

"Frank! Frank! We've found them, we need to get out of here now!" Mikey urged into the 'walkie-talkie', a confirmation from Frank followed.

 

"Let me carry him, Shann," Tomo suggested,"You're weak"

 

"No, really, I'll take him," He cradled his brother's form in his arms once more. Jared's torso heaving more and more withthe effort of each new breath. Tomo smiled softly and fell into step behind Shannon.

 

"What I don't get is if Shannon's a werewolf why is he human now? The full moon is up outside," Ray queried, half jogging to keep up with Dustin.

 

"The change and it's properties completely depends on the human trapped within, from what I've seen, only actually being touched by the moon's light will trigger Shannon's change. Whether that is permanent or just for the first week, I do not know..."

 

All the while Tomo had a nagging feeling, the feeling that something had been forgotten, some vital detail. He shook it off, there were more pressing matters at hand, his best friend being inched from death for one.

 

XxX

 

"Do you agree with him?" Kirus was engrossed in the monitor

 

"Of course I do, that's what made Jared such a bloody nightmare. I was foolish to not appreciate his wild spirit... but Ithink I've finally broken him," Caspian sneered, Kirus sighed. He had seen a completely different side to his brother this day, and he did not like it.

 

"Are you seriously going to just let him die?"

 

"There's nothing I can do, is there? Besides, they may be more inclined to obey me when their friend and leader islying on a mortuary slab," Caspian shrugged

 

"Why on earth did you not take the key from Dustin?" Kirus narrowed his eyes

 

"You, my friend, know nothing of 'sport'"

 

"They will get away though, they have about a hundred people"

 

Caspian scoffed, "Gasp, and I only have an army of mythical creatures... Whatever shall I do? If it's a fight they want...It's a war they shall get!"


	10. Chapter 9: This Is War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It really is not looking good for Jared

_Time to escpae the clutches of a name,  
No, this is not a game,  
It's just a new beginning,  
I don't believe in fate,  
but the bottom line,  
It's time to pay,  
You know you've got it coming_

_...THIS IS WAR..._

"They're coming!" Johnny exclaimed as she pointed toward the entrance of a tunnel. Gerard's flaming hair was first to sprint out of the darkness, he ran to Frank and threw his arms around his neck "Missed you 'bro" he laughed intohis friend's ear.

Mikey, Hayley, Leah and Abbie quickly followed.

"Where's the others?" Frank asked, his answer came as three silhouttes became visible. Two walked side by side, the third lying in the arms of the slightly shorter figure.

The cavern gasped as Jared was thrown into full releif from the wall-mounted torches that had been lit. His already ripped trousers had been tied around his wound to try and stem the violent flow of blood.

"My god..." Lilly breathed, tears forming in her, Johnny's and no doubt the rest of the Echelon's eyes. Jared had seemed to have lost the strength to even move his neck for his head spilt back over Shannon's arm. It was only to those who looked closely was it revealed that Jared was still alive.

"What happened?" Johnny asked.

Shannon shook his head, "Later, we have to go!"

"Shannon, you go on with Jared, we'll stay and hold Caspian back. Tomo, Abbie, Leah you go with them." Frank withdrew a small knife from his pocket.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course. Hayley and Gerard go with them too."

"He is not going anywhere without me!" Mikey cried.

"Okay, fine, and Dustin go with them too, try to find a way to change them back..."

"How? It cannot be done!" Dustin stuttered

"You have to try, please..." Dusting looked into the hazel orbs of Frank's eyes before nodding.

"GO!" Ray prompted, taking out his sword from the scabbard on his back, "Hurry!"

Gerard, Hayley, Mikey, Dustin, Leah, Abbie, Tomo and Shannon with Jared rushed to the passage which ultimately led to the outside world.

xXx

"Cute, they're preparing to fight"

"Surely it's better to just go after the Leto's... Leave the others," Kirus cocked his head at his brother.

"And where is the fun in that, Kirus?"

"Well, if you class tearing kids apart as 'fun' then sure, it's pretty dull, however-"

"If they surrender, then there is no need for any of them to die,"

"As inspiring as I find your blood lust, Caspian, I do not wish to participate in a mass killing of the innocent," the dog turned on his haunches, head raised and trotted from his brother's office.

"You'll regret that brother,"

xXx

There had been no time to contemplate what was happening. Tomo's mind a whirling mess. It had been days since he had last seen Jared, the possibility of losing him again, for good, was unbearable. The hurried sense ofurgency with which they all moved through the tunnels with was plastered upon their faces. Gerard, who was upfront carried, not an electric torch, but a flaming stake of fire. It caused the light to dance upon their faces as they were a pallid stage, at the very least they may be used as weapons.

Tomo began to experience that same sensation that a crucial piece of this dark puzzle was missing, hidden in plain sight, but what? It was then he saw it. The image hitting his retinas and causing his neurons to speed throughtheir electrical maze as though hit by lightning.

A single rose petal.

It fluttered to the dirty floor after it was tossed up by the ghost of Shannon's wake. Tomo let out a gasp that could have knocked down several of Caspian's men.

"What? Jesus I thought you'd seen something!" Mikey cried.

"I did, well sort of, a rose!" He stooped down and plucked the petal from the ground.

"...Yes... I'm mean it is odd that it's down here, but-"

"The paper! Remember? With the rose symbol"

Shannon's rapid intake of air rivaled Tomo's.

"The- The book! The number!"

Tomo nodded and withdrew a crumpled slip from his jean pocket after a moments fumble and began smoothing it out.

'until you see, I shall not speak

07826272914'

"We know this isn't from Caspian, so whose phone number is it?" Gerard asked

"Only one way to find out, there's no chance Jared's got his blackberry on him, is there?" Tomo asked. A faint smile trembled upon Jared's lips, a fraction of his eyes visible beneath his lids. He was still conscious at least Shannon thought. "Oh, hang on..." Tomo withdrew a smartphone from his pocket, "And bloody-hell I've got signal!" He punched in the number before handing the phone to Shannon, "You're the one that was contacted," He smiled

Placing it to his ears Shannon waited until the monotone beeping deviated to an array of muffled movements on the other end.

The speaker pone enabled all to hear the strange voice that proceeded.

"I was expecting you to call."

xXx

Caspian did not know where his brother had gone, neither did he greatly care, Kirus often had changes of heart anddisagreed with him, but he always came back. He would not go far. Caspian entered the warehouses main interior which was now a swarming mass of bodies.

His best team of beasts were instructed to follow him, the rest; wreak havoc.

xXx

The army stood at all angles so covering every possible entrance. Their weapons drawn, ready to strike at a moments notice; they knew it was only a matter of time before a hoard of unknown enemies rampaged into the very cavern in which they stood.

"How're ya, Frank?" Ray asked.

"About to be attacked by an army of mythical creatures which until today I would have laughed in the face of anybody who calimed they existed... yep, I'm doing fine." Frank chuckled and shot a grin at his bushy haired friend.

"Is everyone okay?" Ray called over his shoulder. A broken chorus of mumbles, the occasional uncertain 'yes' threaded through was the reply. What was about to happen seemed to hit them, full force, for the very first time. It had been nothing more than

a game before now, no real danger, no real consequences. Child's play. Oh, how naive they had been.

The approaching wave crashed upon their eardrums. An amalgamation of footsteps, battle cries and roars. Frank's body tensed,

Ray gave a small gulp.

"Here they come..." Lilly breathed, a staff tightly entwined within her fingers.

"Look, this isn't a good idea! We can't let you get hurt," Frank looked around to the army of people, most just teenagers.

"No way! Not after what Ray told us what Caspian is planning! We cannot let that happen, they must be stopped!"A black-haired boy with eyes as dark as his hair defied. Frank looked around to his companions and seemed to see the same determined expression upon their faces.

"Okay then, if you're all sure,"

"I just hope the others are okay," Johnny sighed, as she said it the footsteps and cries that had been growing ever louder reached a mountainous crescendo and snarling faces came into view, blood in their eyes.

xXx

"Who is this? How do you know us?"

"I have been watching Caspian's movements," the voice replied simply.

"How? Who are you?"

"Help," this one word answer and the calmness in the male voice almost caused Shannon to kick something.

"Help? Stop talking in riddles my brother is... sick, very sick we need to save him!" Shannon choked upon the word that still lingered in his throat, refusing to let go for the prevention of denial that the word would bring if allowed to leave its safe haven; 'dying'.

"I am aware of Jared's situation"

"How the-?"

"You need to get your brother to me as soon as you can, every second counts... Even then, I cannot guarantee"

Mikey took the phone from Shannon.

"Where are you?" He pulled out a map of Los Angeles from his satchel

"Ah, Micheal, I thought you'd be there," Mikey did not even bother queering him, too much was at risk and he knew he would recieve no decent answer, "You'll find me on no map, go to the valley where two rivers meet, there Ishall be, now goodbye and godspeed my friends." The phone died in Mikey's hand.

"What the actual fuck? Did that just happen?" Gerard's eyebrows were harshly contracted.

"Never mind that, I don't care if this guy has just escaped from Azkaban, I am going," Shannon bent down to Jared - whom he had laid down on the floor to make the call, "We're gonna get you better Jay, don't worry," Jared gave a barely visible smile and nod, Shannon wiped away the pool of sweat forming from his brother's forehead.

"What do you reckon Dustin?" Tomo asked, sitting back on his heels at Jared's side. Dustin threw up his hands.

"I'd say we need to take any chance we can, I really don't see any alternative... I mean, I've never heard of anyone living out in the forest before, but I'm prepared to believe anything these days."

"In that case, we need to move!" Shannon scooped up Jared and began walking again, "hang in there Jay..."

xXx

It was chaos.

At first they only intended to injure the creatures of 'The Den', they changed tack after it became evident that the creatures would settle for no less than a kill.

The creatures were outnumbered 1-3 (only the adult male were here to fight, and that was not that many) but that made little difference for their ferocity more than made up for what they lacked in numbers.

Frank and Ray were back-to-back. Ray parried a blow to his chest with his sword before Frank dived forwards to block an attacker of a young girl who was already engaged in another fight. Ray was the only one with a sword, a detail that had been overlooked, he and Frank felt the need to protect those whose weapons were less potent. Steaks they had those - the occasional knife or pitchfork, but vampires were not the only creatures in here. Ray Cursed, how could they have forgotten that?

Frank gasped and it only took a glimpse to realise why, Frank was nose to muzzle with the most spectacular creature he had ever

seen. A dazzling horned horse. Its mane and tail ablaze with blue flame.

"God I wish Mikey was here to see this!"

xXx

 

The occasional muffled glimpse of the raging battle far behind reached their ears, but they had to press on.

"Shannon, you so know you'll have to stay in the Den don't you? You can't go out in the moonlight," Dustin prepared for Shannon's retort.

"What? I have to go!" He panted under Jared's dead weight.

"So you want to turn into a blood-thirsty beast and kill us all?"

Shannon bristled with anger, "That's rich coming from a vampire..."

"Yes, but I can control myself these days, it isn't your fault."

"I am not just going to sit here."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, first lets get out of here alive."

"Did you hear something?" Leah breathed. They paused, straining their ears. They could just make it out above the background noise, the thuds of at least five pairs of footsteps, but the reverberation made it difficult to tell.

"I highly doubt that's Ray or Frank," Abbie stated.

"Shit... Caspian!" Tomo cursed. Dustin nodded

"I doubted that he would remain in the battle, too 'hands on' for him,"

They ran, or as close to it as they could with Shannon shuffling as fast as he could, refusing numerous offers from Tomo to take Jared. The footsteps grew louder and it was only then did they realise an incontrovertible, heart halting truth.

The footsteps were coming from both directions.

The only option was to dive right into a small side-tunnel, Dustin tried to stop them, it was too late; Caspian - and god only knew how many other's - breaths were audible. It was a dead end... They were trapped.

xXx

The animal lowered it's head, Frank's mind froze, he could not kill it even in self defence, didn't killing a unicorn curse you? Even in the midst of battle Franks became mesmerised by the shining beast's movements.

"... Beautiful..." Ray breathed.

It did not attack them, but got to its knees and kept swinging its muzzle towards its back. Frank and Ray watched the flames dancing on the crest of the strong neck and billowing from the rump. A sharp pain slashed through Franks right shoulder, throwing them from their stupor. A snarling, almost human creature had sliced him with elongated brought the swords down on its head before it could strike Frank again.

"Thanks mate," Frank winced. It was then that they understood that the horned horse wished for them to ride him -for they could only assume the majestic creature was a stallion - to safety.

"We can't", Ray shook his head, "Go and find the others," he didn't know how the creature knew what he meant, but all the same the stallion spun on iridescent hooves and galloped out to the very same tunnel that Shannon and the others had taken.

As they turned they were thrown back into battle; the clanging of metal on metal, the screams or hisses denoting that a weapon had found its target. Frank could only pray that none of them had been hurt as he engaged in a fight between swords and werewolf's tooth and claw. That idealistic prayer was dispelled as Ray turned to see the very same girl Frank had saved lying blood stained, upon the floor, not moving.

xXx

Hayley, Abbie and Leah were immediately pushed to the back, furthest away from Caspian, the jagged wall grazing their backs.

Leah seemed none too pleased about this.

"Let me at him! I'll rip his dodgy head from his shoulders with my bare hands and shove that hat up his arse!"

"Fiesty one this, maybe we'll kill her first," Caspian smirked

"Don't you fucking dare!" Abbie and Shannon spat.

"Of course, non of you have to die, just as long as you agree to conform to my plan"

"Never," Came the defiant cries .

"But what about Jared? I am the only one who knows how to save him," the be-hatted man stared down at Jared who had been placed gently upon the floor again, Tomo stroking his forehead and Shannon standing as a barrier between him and the enemy.

"you're lying!"

"Really? Tell me Shannon, do you really want to take that chance? Do you really want to risk him dying to save yourself?"

"Don't listen to him Shannon!" Tomo cried.

"Ah, Tomo, the third wheel of 'Thirty Seconds To Mars', never any attention paid to you is there? It's the Leto's fans cry for, never you... Why bother? You melt into the background at shows and interviews. Jared doesn't care for you, why save him? You could do so much better, Tomo."

"He's messing with you Tomo, you know he's lying!"

"Is that so? Tomo, so gentle, so docile, so kind, but you'd do anything for your friends, won't you? Tell me, Tomo, would they do the same for you?"

"Leave him alone!" Shannon growled, his eyes urging his best friend not to believe Caspian.

"Aww, Shann, I'm just trying to have a bit of fun," He turned to Dustin, "And all this time I thought I knew where your loyalties lay, I was mistaken" He gave a contemptuous smirk before his gaze fell upon Jared again, "

"Hmm, He doesn't look good does he? I think he's on the wrong side of living" This was, prehaps, the only truth Caspian had spoken, Jared looked awful.

His chest fell and rose with uncomfortable haste, his skin paler than virgin snow and now beginning to gain a sickly green hue, eyes closed and his body so wet with sweat it might have been raining. "How long do you reckon he has?" Caspian turned to the brute beside him who guffawed loudly. "So are you still gonna fight or surrender? Remember, I doubt your little friend will make it to see another sunrise, especially if you chose to fight, but enough small talk." Caspian withdrew a small dagger from within his deep coat, his cronies baring the lethal claws and teeth menacingly.

"Your choice is simple: Surrender, or we kill you one by one."

"No, take me! Let the others go and kill me instead." Tomo was on his feet and had walked in front of Shannon without him realising.

"Are you mad? NO!" Shannon cried. Tomo turned to him, a certainty in his brown eyes the likes of which no one had seen before.

"Well that's very gallant of you Tomo"

"NO! No deal! Don't hurt him!" But Tomo kept walking forward, right into Caspian's grasp. A scream from the onlookers as Caspian grabbed his shirt and pulled Tomo towards him, arm around his neck with the dagger lying dangerously close to his carotid artery.

"NO, TOMO!" The screams got louder, Capsians men blocked those who rushed forwards; Mikey was thrown to the floor, Gerard pinned against a wall and Shannon in fierce combat with a man twice his size - or was it a vampire? Lean, Abbie and Hayley threw themselves at the enemy, but they too were stopped.

"Quiet!" Caspian demanded. A peculiar force fell upon them, they could neither move nor speak, as though invisible gags and bonds held them, "Better! Now," His concentration returned to Tomo who remained unnervingly stilldespite having a blade at his throat.

"You promise you'll let them go?" Tomo whispered, Caspian hissed a hot 'yes' into his ear, "... Then, get it over with" Tomo closed his eyes, his throat constricting in a gulp. Shannon's scream never left his mouth; his brainwhirring, but nerves immobilised.

An animalistic howl. A frenzy a movement. A flash of blood. The dull thud of a heavy object hitting the floor. A scream.

Shannon opened his eyes, expecting the worst.

Tomo was on his feet breathing a hundred times a second. Caspian lay upon the floor - his cheek slashed - as a large black shape padded between Caspian and the others.

"Kirus?" Shannon cried, exasperated (glad that he could finally move, as could the others).

"That's my name, don't wear it out" He replied dryly, breathing hard.

"But why? What are you doing here?"

"Saving your arses, what does it look like?"

"But you turned me! You're his brother!"

"Yes and I've seen that he is nothing more than an egotistical, manipulative, sociopath bastard and have realised the errorof my ways... 'blah, blah' ...I don't see you or your friend here complaining."

"No, I must admit you do seem to have an aptitude for timing." Shannon raised an eyebrow, both him and the dog grinning hard.

"Hmm, yes, but I wish I'd had it with your poor brother." He turned to Jared who let out a small, low moan of pain, before turning to Caspian who was righting himself on the floor.

"Kirus!" He growled, the madman licking the blood that trickled from his cheek. "So this is the path you've chosen, is it?"

Kirus took a step towards him.

"It's time you learned, Caspian, that you can't do whatever you please and get away with it."

"Just watch me," all the pretences and satire was gone from Caspian now, his eyes shone with pure blood lust.

"RUN!" Kirus shouted. Gerard scooped up Jared as Mikey led Tomo - who seemed to be viewing the world through a perspex screen of shock - out of the way.

Kirus launched himself at his brother, jaws open.

They tried to run, but a sickening high pitched yelp caused them all to freeze and spin.

Caspian gave a cruel laugh as he looked down at his brother. The large dog squirmed and cried on the dirt, the handle of the dagger protruding from his heaving chest.

"No!" Shannon screamed, Caspian bent down to the dying dog, a smirk plastered on his cruel face.

"I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me," He pulled the blade out earning an agonised cry from Kirusbefore plunging it into his brother's heart. His whole body jerked before slowly relaxing, one last breath pulled from behind the black lips and he was still.

Shannon's eyes were wide mirroring the expressions of those around. Kirus' body began to morph and grow, the dark hair receding into skin until there lay, not a canine, but a human. The bloodied corpse of a twenty year old man, once shining brown eyes clouding over as though glazed by a precipitate and blood pooling from scarlet lips.

"Good to see you again brother," Caspian narrowed his eyes, his spindle index finger pushing the cold cheek, causing his head to flop over to face him.

"Don't you touch him!", Shannon growled

"Why Shannon? You wish to receive the same fate?"

"Run! Take Jared and run," He commanded

Dustin nodded and tried to prompt the others to go as Shannon stood his ground.

"Just go!" Shannon stared at Caspian, no weapons at hand, "This is for my brother" He punched Caspian hard in the jaw earning a cheer from the others. Caspian recovered quickly and snarled. He grabbed Shannon and threw him against the rocky wall. Shannon's went limp and fell to the ground.

Caspian bent over Shannon, dagger raised above his head.

A glutterol scream tore through the tunnels accompanied by a slice of sliver and a spurt of scarlet.

Leah stood over the lifeless body of Caspian, his severed head laying feet away. Copious volumes of blood gushed from where his neck should have been. Leah drew herself up, proud, breathing hard like a wild animal.

"Who's feisty now?" She called in a perfect replication of Caspian's poisonous satire, "That was for Kirus, and daring to hurt Shannon!"


	11. Chapter 10: Change Is Near

"Bloody hell, Leah!" Abbie looked flabberguasted, "You just killed him"

"Yep!" She picked the hat off the blood glazed head.

"NO!" Abbie lunged forward, sensing what her friend was about to do, "You are not shoving the hat up his arse!"

"Awww," Leah giggled.

"Err, girls," Dustin coughed, slowly pointing at the two letos lying on the floor.

"Oh god,"

"So, we have to carry both of them? Great, that complicates things..." Gerard frowned, "Shall we wait for Shannon to wake up?"

"Actually, It's better for everyone if he remains unconscious. That way he can't transform into a werewolf, so we can take him outside." Dustin paused, lifting his head slightly. Leah, after scaring away the remaining henchmen with her bloody sword and proceeding to purge it of blood by wiping it on Caspian's coat, picked her ears too.

"It sounds like... hooves..." Hayley mused.

"Please, God, don't tell me its... Caspian's demon horse or something," Gerard sighed.

"No... In fact," Dustin began to beam as the deepest regions of the cave from which they had escaped the clutches of became bathed in brilliant blue, dancing along the callous rock and illuminating even the deepest nooks and crannies "- I knew it!"

It was a horse encased in saphire flame... No, it was the flame. Was it even a horse? This magnificent being could not be terrestrial; a heathen God. The animal slowed as it reached them, gently nuzzeling Dustin who patter the silk-spun fur.

Tomo stood awestruck at the animal, it was beautiful. From the perfectly sculpted horn that shimmered an azure hue to the solid topaz blocks that ended the muscular legs.

"He's called Mira," Dustin informed the group, Jared and Shannon lifted from their shoulders for the smallest moment.

Jared gave another groan, Tomo swore, the creatures arrival had lifted the terrible weight of their prediciment from his shoulder, Jared's pityful noise had just thrown it back with momentous force.

"How far do you reckon until the exit?" Tomo asked.

"Can't be more than ten minutes if we're fast, you and Jared should go ahead on Mira, there just isn't time,"

"What about you guys, how will you find him, how will I find hims?"

"You'll be fine, I think this fella knows what he's doing"

Tomo walked upto Mira and patted his neck. A tongue of flame licked his hand, he flinched, from instinct not pain as the flame did not burn him. In fact it was simply pleasently warm - body temperature.

"It is not hot!"

"No," Dustin chuckled, "But it could be, Mira controlls the temperature, if he doesn't trust you then you'd be fired to a crisp"

"You need to be quick!" Mikey instructed as he aided Gerard and Tomo in lifting Jared's limp form onto Mira's sleek back. Jared could not support himself so spilt over Mira's neck, engulfed in the cool flame. Tomo held him in place with one hand as he scrambled onto the horse behind Jared.

"What the hell do I hold onto?" Tomo asked as his hand fell through the 'mane'. Mikey smiled and reached for his bag.

"Don't tell me you have a bloody bridle in there?" Tomo raised his brows, Mikey shook his head and produced a rope that he tied around Mira's neck in a loop with which Tomo was able to wrap his arms around Jared's waist and hold the rope - securing them both in place.

Tomo sat awkwardly for a moment before instructing Mira, rather sheepishly; "Right, well... Off we go!" The animal anorted before breaking into a controlled canter in the direction of the outside world.

Gerard, Hayley, Dustin, Mikey, Leah, Abbie and an unconscious Shannon were left in the dim catacomb.

"Do we just leave them here?" Mikey asked, pointing to the two bodies.

"We'll have to," Dustin shrugged off his coeat, "But first..." He bent down to Kirus and covered his body in it. He smiled sadly and breathed a thankyou, the rest followed and muttered words of gratitude.

"We need to get going!" Leah commented. Gerard nodded.

"Dustin and I will caryy Shannon, you too Leah, I must admit your 'ninja skills' are awesome as fuck."

"I am the Ninja Nun," She giggled.

Five minutes later and Shannon was being carried - rathee awkwardly by Dustin, Gerard and Leah.

"Couldn't Shannon have gone with Tomo?" Gerard panted, "No offence or nothing, but Jared only weighs about two stone!"

"I'll let Shann know that next full moon," Mikey chuckled.

"What happens if Shannon starts waking up outside?" Gerard's eyes contained a glint of fear.

"Grab the nearest stone and hit him over the head with it!" Dustin replied earning a shaky laugh from Gerard, "I am not joking! It's that or us all be ripped apart!" His voice grim.

"Light! There's light!" Abbie shrieked as she pointed straight ahead, "Thank fuck for that, I might have killed myself if I'd seen one more tunnel!"

A collective appresiative sigh as natural light began to caress the black with its welcomed fingers.

xXx

All he could do was cling onto the hooved hurricane and beg every god he could name that their steed would bring them there in time.

Tomo couldn't see his face, fear prevnted him from moving more than a few milimeters, but Jared occasionally released entrial tugging pants that were audiable even over the thunddering hooved cascading down on Tomo's ears. Every second passed as an age of anxiety to Tomo, despite being at a gallop ebery tree seemed to stay in his visions for minutes. Mira flew across the ground his feet sure as haphazard rocks crumbled beneath each, hard punch with which they trapiezed forwards.

The world darkened by many shads as clouds suffocated the moon, their cold hands imprisoning its light as they clenched around the pale complexion. Tomo was still vaugely aware of his surrounding mainly due to the trickled of water that his ears registrered. Could they possibly at the reunion of the two rivers yet? Were they nearly there? Tomo could only pray.

xXx

Pain. His world was pain. How he had even managed to hold on for this long he did not know. An acrid smog had possesed his being, its potency increasing with every passing minute. Vague images of events flooded his mind: Shannon holding him, being taken from the cell - Tomo... He was there too, the people (a mass of people), Caspian he had come... But he was dead now... And Kirus... After that Jared was not certain what had happened as his consciousness had began to waver.

He was moving fast though - that he knew. Someone was behind him, embracing him. His body was thrown viciously back and forth as a monsoon of noise rained upon his ears, the wind thrashing his haHe half opened his for an iota of a moment - even that drained him. He had seen flames, blue flames - 'Am I dead?'... He was scared and in agony, that he could be sure of.

Jared felt the violent jarring lesson in intesnsity. Now the movement threw him up and down rather than forwards and back.

Another spasm of pain racked his body while the army of oblivion gained more ground at the corners of his conscieceness.

"We're here, Jay! It's going to be allright," The figure behind him whooped with relief. A figure that was painfully familier, but the army had already obliterated all but agony and fear in his world.

xXx

The clouds began to softly cry, a fine spray of water falling upon their heads.

"I think we're gonna regret not wearing coats," Abbie observed, patting her hair to inspect the damage, the srands had started to congeal together.

"Thanks... We'll remember that for the next time we embark on some crazed rescue mission!" Mikey rolled his eyes. His bad mood had began as Shannon's still body had taken on the transformation into a wolf - almost doubling in size and weight, thankfully he was still unconscious, and had been exacerbated by the promise of rain.

The group stumbled over small stones that had become trecherous in the diluted light.

"I wonder how Tomo and Jay are?" Hayley quiried, she was infrount and shone a dying torch in front of them searching for beacons to indicate they were close and immanent perils.

"They'll be fine!" Gerard reassured. Leah and Abbie nodded ferverantly to confirm this.

xXx

The rain fell harsh and hard, inhibiting Tomo's vission. He could just make out a small shack, barely distinguishable from its surroundings in the darkness and blur of rain. It lay upon the bank of a babbling river and within the crevice of two mountains. It seemed calm and though, at present, it gave off no illuminant of any form it acted as a beacon to Tomo, a beacon of hope.

Mira swayed closer to the wooden building, hooves drowned over the lashing of the rain droplets. Tomo couldn't appreciate the wonderous simplicty of the shack, the subtely sculptured logs playing walls, for Jared's once soft complaints of pain had now escalated to whimpers of agony. Sweat mingled with rain, was this better for him, cooling him off? Or did it exacerbate his condition?

The hut's door was swung open sending smiling light at the troubled party, welcoming them with warmth and saftey. A figure was born from the warm glow it quickly reached the horse and gently grabbed Jared's torso, heaving him down. Tomo dismounted, gave Mira a breif, grateful pat and aided the stranger.

"Come on, we need to hurry." Tomo didn't need this prompt to hurry half of Jared into the shack.

It was small and, it sounded cliche to him, but cozy Tomo though looking around. He was now solely responisble for holding Jared. The other man had rushed forwards and swept a wooden dining table clear before Tomo placed the shaking Jared upon it.


	12. Chapter 11: Antidotes And Anecdotes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hold me to any of the vampire/werewolf lore in this fic... It is fiction after all!

Tomo surveyed the man who buzzed around Jared, checking his pulse, feeling his forhead and running a hand down the sodden body. He carried an extraordinary familarity in his face, he was old - late fifties prehaps, Tomo thought. His hair was shoulder length and black, not unclean but far from in perfect condition. In fact that was the best way to describe his entire being, the house. It was clear that this person felt that tidiness was not the highest of qualities.

As he bustled around Jared Tomo looked around the room. For it was a room. Almost every aspect of a house was contained within this one space, he assumed the door at the far left led to a bathroom. A bed was tucked away in the corner as was a spent sofa that housed an equally aged, gray-muzzled dog. A small area akin to a kitchen lay adjacent to Tomo, it was so primative it could not be classed as such containg little more than a prepatory counter containing several lethal looking knives and a fire run stove with a dented tin pot. Upon the ceiling hung various carcasses, some whole, others just a joint of meat. Most perculiar Tomo felt were the array a coloured jars and phails that inhabited shelves on the wood walls. Who on earth was this man?

"He is worse than I expected," the sudden noise caused Tomo to start.

"B-but you can fix him, Right? Please tell me you can fix him!"

The man gave a small sigh, gaze returning to Jared who gave constant, pitiful pants and moans of pain.

"I'll do my best, but most of it is down to him... It will not be easy!" He strained a clump of cloth from a bowl of water by Jared's head, the water being squeezed from the fibers before handing the damp material to Tomo, "Here, dab his forehead, it is essential he keeps cool, his body is overheating... We let that happen and... Well, you know," Tomo's eyes went wide and scrambled to place the rag above his friends twitching eye lids. He nodded at Tomo before moving over to consult a book that lay near the dog.

"sorry, but, who are you?" Tomo asked, lifting his head, but not ceaseing the movement of cloth over wet skin. The man did not look up from the fusty book.

"Name's Corvus," he grunted leafing through pages, "means 'crow'. I am the unfortunate brother of the pillock who did that to your friend -"

"- you're Caspian's brother too!" Tomo gasped.

"Yes, Am I correct in believing he is dead?"

"Yeah... He is" Tomo was unsure whether it was wise to mention that it was by their hands he was killed... Then again, Tomo thought, he had called him a 'pillock' and that was not a description normally reserved for a well loved sibling, he would certainly not refer to Fillip or Ivana as such.

"Am I also correct with the knowledge that Kirus is also dead?"

Tomo nodded, Corvus hung his head and shook it sadly. "Caspian killed him?" He asked with meloncholy

"How did you know?"

"Mira told me, also said that it was your friend that ended Caspian's life... I'd like to shake hands with her" Tomo was non-plussed. The horse had told him? But before he could question Corvus yelled: "Ah-ha"

He tapped a page in the book several times, scanned it for a moment before making his way to his collection of jars. He pulled several from their resting places upon the shelf as well as a pestel and mortar, piled them in his arms and went to the counter by the stove.

"what are those?" Tomo asked

"Nothing they do in a hospital will do your friend any good. These are far more effective than your chemical crap... All derived from nature and thousands of years of teaching an' learning." He poured the contents of some of the jars in to the mortar and began to crush and blend to an amalgamation of coloured powers and frondescence. "just one more thing," Corvus unscrewed the lid of a jar containing a potent scarlet substance and tipped it in.

"what is that?" Tomo asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Blood of an ungulate -"

"Ahh... Will Jared be drinking that?"

"... Kind of... Why?"

"Nah, just best not to mention it. He's a strict vegetarian"

Corvus scoffed, still mixing the concoction, "Vegetarian... Bloody hell... Would those people stop defying nature. Besides tell me would Jared rather be I  
nside a coffin?" Tomo chuckled and shrugged.

"How will he drink if he's unconscious?"

"He won't be drinking it... Too late for that, we need to be more... Direct. Besides he isn't unconscious. Unfortinatly I ran out of hypodermic needles five years ago, so this is gonna have to be done the old fashioned way..." Corvus transfered the mixture to a bottle that contained a funnel like nib and shook it, he then proceeded to grab the smallest knife upon the counter.

"woah, what are you doing?" Tomo called as Corvus made his way over to Jared.

"you have to trust me on this... It is the only way to save him. He'll be fine. Trust me... Please."

"last time I trusted one of your family, this happened!"

"Believe if I'd wanted to kill you I would have done so by now, besides I am nothing like my brother."

Tomo paused, weighing up his options. He had none, either trust this man and there being a possibility of Jared dying or leaving now and it being a garentee. He nodded slowly, following Corvus to the table where Jared lay. The pallid body was convulsing violently, his head jarring upon the stained wood.

"quick!" Corvus commanded "hold his arm still."

Tomo did as bidden and held Jared's left forearm tightly, it was difficult as the muscles were unwilling to remain stationary.

"shit!" Corvus cursed, sickly foam spewed from behind Jared's lips. He rested the blade of the knife upon the crook of the pale elbow, the veins swollen and vicously purple below the skin. "press hard!" He instructed the Croatian whose fingers lay above and below the site of the knife. Corvus pushed down, the knife abrading the skin and forcing it to cry blood. Jared did not seem aware that anything had happened, "adrenaline, he's in shock, body can't cope..." Corvus quickly explained, "I need you to part the skin." Tomo grimaced as he obeyed, pulling the flesh and causing blood to seep faster from the wound. Corvus pored the bottles contents into the small laceration, taking care for it to enter the vein, aiding the liquid's course occasionally with his fingers.

"are you sure this is safe and sterile?" Tomo's eyes were wide. Corvus barked with laughter causing his aged dog to lift his head.

"it is neither... You planning on working for the health department, boy? You're as pedantic as 'em... Jesus would you rather me be disinfecting the wound of his corpse?" He placed two fingers at Jared's carotid artery and kept them there, "get a glass of water, please"

"from where?"

"the river, of course..." Corvus watched Tomo's horrified look with amusement and chuckled, "I'm joking, son, there's a pail of fresh water outside,"

Tomo sighed then before exiting the home.

"Come on!" Corvus breathed to Jared, "I know you can hear me, fight it!" He felt the pulse beneath his fingers rising, more sporordic and forceful. Every cell in his body was operating at double time, the antidote had not yet taken effect, had not yet quelled the fire of the wolf blood. His breathing intensified, chest rising and falling with uncomfortable haste. Suddenly the minute body began to convulse worse than before, the whites of his eyes were visible through eyelidless slits and a horrific choking gurgle came from his through, stifled by spittle. He was having a fit.

"TOMO!" Corvus bellowed, the addressed flew through the door, almost screamed when he saw his friend.

"What the fuck did you do?!" Rushing to his side

"Nothing... Exactly what I should have done...maybe he can't cope"

"What the hell does that mean!"

In the midst of the panic nobody but the dog seemed to have noticed the fact that Jared had stopped breathing.

 

XxX

 

The rain was torrential, beating down on their beings physically and physiologically. Drowning their spirits with its tiny cold fists.

"Where the fuck are we?" Gerard panted. They had been walking now for a quarter of an hour - no easy feat when carrying a werewolf - serpentining trees and dusty shrubs, the city lights now as alien as the stars above.

"I hear a river... We can't be far!" Hayley pointed straight ahead, her teeth chattering slightly. The night was vicious, command the cold to attack their skin, burrowing deep into skin, penetrate through flesh using the path the rain had already dug, scraping bone and gripping hearts with heimal hands.

But it was the dark that inhibited moral the most. The torch had breathed its last five minutes ago, flickering to nothing with a cough and splutter. Leaving them with nothing but black. Hayley's had been their only torch, only light source, the rest were left idal in the caves; dropped in fear or having escaped from bags in the jarring movements of running. 

The party turned a corner and emitted a cry of joy.

"Mira! It's Mira, we're here!" Leah whooped. The unmistakable brilliant blue flames of the horse seemed to abolish even the rain.

"hey look, he's outside a cabin, they must be in there."  
Abbie smiled.

"And we don't have to cross the river," Mikey observed, for it lay behind the wooden hut.

Only a few trees lay between them and the horse, who gave a pleased neigh at their arrival. Hayley went ahead with Mikey. The flames provided light, as did the small outpouring through the window caused by burning candles. That did not stop a cry of suprise as Abbie tripped over a rock. Leah rolled her eyes

"Does that all the time..."

XxX

They were at the cabin now, Mikey opened the unlocked door.

"Oh my God!" He disapeared inside. The rest exchanged worried looks before following.

Jared was upon the table, unmoving, Tomo suporting his head trying to keep open his airways, glints of tears embedded in his beard.

Frozen in the threshold, they gaped,

'was Jared alive?'

Corvus was frantically throwing various jars asside, riffling through aged parchment and viciously emptying herbs, plants and entrails into a mortar.

"In, close the shutters!" He bellowed at the new commers. They scrambled to do what he commanded, the panic in his voice griping their hearts. Now the only light in the room originated from the burning wicks of candles which danced upon their melting pedestals.

Tomo was whispering pleas to Jared's motionless body, praying for his heart to resume beating, begging his lungs to draw another breath.

"Can you save him?" Dustin asked addressing Corvus - something was awfully familiar about him.

"Hope so" He breathed, never ceaseing the creation of some strange concoction that would evedently be hoped to revive Jared, prevent him from to succumbing to the eternal sleep he lay on the fringes of, feet dangled over the precipice.

A moan came from the other end of the room, from Shannon. The absence of moonlight had reverted his form to human and abolished his unconscious state. Leah ran to aid him to his feet, he groaned a thankyou before surveying the room. Milliseconds later he let out a bellow of despair and stumbled towards Jared and Tomo.

"No!" He cried, "No, don't leave me Jay, please!"

It was a heart wrenching sight. Shannon sobbing as Tomo tried to comfort him but broke down himself.

"out the way," Corvus demanded Shannon, panic had abolished civility from his being. Corvus lifted Jared's torso from the table, having to fight his brother off first, and tilted back his head and placed the wooden bowl to the dry lips and trickled the contents in. He stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow, muttering pleas under his breath.

The next few seconds were excruciating.

Hayley wept in Mikey's arms, whose face was pained, Gerard stood next to Dustin their faces contorted.Leah was closest to Shannon and stared wide-eyed at Jared, the flickering candle light created the perverse illusion that his eyelidswere twitching. Abbie was on her knees clutching the neck of Corvus' dog, whispering a string of  
'please's' in his ear.

Still nothing, no vital signs from Jared, Corvus turned to them, completely deflated.

"I don't understand it..." He shook his head, chewing his lips as a sigh escaped them.

Tomo looked up, face shining with the trail of fresh tears.

"He's... He's... G-gone... Hasn't he?"

Corvus sighed and slowly nodded yes, "I think so..."

This was followed by an entourage of sobs and sunken heads.

"No..." Shannon said, but not in the tone one would expect from someone who had just lost a brother, "No... He hasn't!"

"Sorry?" Corvus replied.

Just then a hacking, spluttering cough reverberated around the room. Choking upon the very air it was so desperate to receive.

"Jared!" Shannon cried, wrapping his arms around his brother as though simply by embracing him tight enough he could inhibit further danger.

Corvus somehow managed to prise the brothers apart and immidiantly began to inspect Jared, who was currently staring wide-eyed and bewildered at his new surroundings his chest heaving with the atempt to pay off his body's oxygen debt. His lungs on fire from lack of use. Corvus checked his heart beat, pupil dilation and circulation all the while handling him like damp tissue paper or premature baby, on the edge of existence.

Jared sat on the table, silently, seemingly appreciating the precious sound of his own breath. He contracted his hand and wiggled his fingers, inspecting with almost childlike fasination, before placing the same hand above his heart. Tomo, under Corvus' instruction, offered Jared the glass of water, aiding the shaking hands to the mouth. Jared took several long sips before stopping and opening his mouth to speak:

"I...I-I'm... Alive?" He asked, voice cracked and pained even with the lubrication of the water he looked at Shanon more than anyone else. All Shanon could do was nod incredulously, barely believing it himself. Tomo drew Jared into a heartfelt hug,

"yes Jay, yes you are!" Tears of joy leaked from his glowing eyes.

The rest stood, dumbfounded, a whirlwind of emotions still clung to the aged, splinter ridden walls, soul-crushing grief turned to monumentous joy and surprise in the time taken to respire.

"you're not out of the woods yet," Corvus warned, "More like: we've outrun the bears, but they're still behind us!" His eyes lingered at the gaping wound at Jared's side that hid beneath blood soaked cloth. "That's where you was bitten, I take it?" Jared nodded slowly, eyes widening as he saw the bloody mess that was now his side as Corvus slit the cloth with the knife. He gentle placed his hand on the greenish skin around the perimeter of the wound, causing Jared to emit a yelp. "broken ribs," Corvus muttered, "nothing a little rest shouldn't fix"

"sorry," jared interrupted,"but who are you, I'm confused"

"You're not the only one" Gerard interjected. Corvus nodded,

"Many pages need yet to be inked, that well come in good time." From his shelf he brought down a bamboo shoot green paste and gently, very gently applied it to Jared's wound before he rebandaged it. "that will have to do for now, hopefully I've managed to stop it going septic and it should heal by itself, or at least I pray it does cause I really don't want to be the one to have to explain that to any doctor, nor how your blood is so... Inhuman"

"Inhuman? I thought you fixed him," Tomo frowned. Corvus sighed.

"Jared is still a vampire, the problem was that he was also a werewolf... You can not be both and have any hope of living out the day, it was killing him. I managed to reverse the effect of the lyconthrope blood. However he is still a vampire"

"Is that what you... 'injected' him with,"

Corvus nodded at Tomo's query, "It was a little known concoction, and while it hasn't eradicated all issues it did save Jared's life,"

Jared smiled a 'thankyou' before being drawn into yet another hug, this time by Hayley followed by a clap on the shoulder from Gerard and Mikey, "you gave us quite a scare there mate," he smiled. Tomo then set Set about introducing Abbie and Leah to Jared - not that the former needed to be told who he was.

"You seem so familiar," Dustin frowned at Corvus tilting his head slightly. Corvus sighed.

"Time for some explaining I fear, sit down all of you," he flushed his hand around the room before apologising for the lack of seats. They moved until all resembling seats were occupied and the residual people sat upon the floor, Jared was made by Shannon to remain on the table. "well as Tomo knows I am Corvus, Caspian and Kirus's Brother." He waited for the collective gasp to die before continuing,

"I knew it," Dustin murmured, "but I thought you were.... Dead"

Corvus gave a dry laugh, "Caspian never did like me much, always believed I was too cautious, too cowardly. Kirus on the other hand... We were good friends," he paused for a moment, pinching his brow with his eyes screwed shut, "he always came to me when Caspian would play tricks on him. Kirus was the youngest, I was the eldest I was the dad he never had, but as I'm sure you know... Life can be cruel. I was barely 22 years old when it happened, I had gone to get water as I did every day when I saw my mother... Dead on the floor with creatures from the very depths of hell standing over her. I ran as fast as I could back to our home, but it wasn't enough: they followed me, tore down the door and attacked...they left me alone though... I've never know why. They took Caspian away and left Kirus and I. I tried every thing I could, everything mother had taught me, but I couldn't change him back. He had been bitten by a werewolf in human form and was caught in a bizarre state - as I am sure you have seen - the mind of a man, body of a wolf. Caspian returned after 7 nights, a vampire, taking nonsense of beings overthrowing humans, enslaving them.... We fought, we all fought... I refused to be a part of it... And that was the last time I saw my brothers."

He sighed before having himself out of his seat and moving to the put of water and the small stove before lighting the fire beneath, then he turned to his enthralled audience. "Thirty years passed with only snippets of what my brothers where doing, caught from thouse who escaped. Thirty years with no contact until Kirus turns up outside this very building. In fact in was barley two Weeks ago that he came, distraught he was, told me of Caspian's plan, told me he wanted no further part. It was a shame to hear what the two had done together over the years the dozens they had killed for what they believed necessary for the liberation of so-called mythical beings. Kirus knew Caspian would kill him if he tried to stop him. I told him to play along for longer to keep coming back though. That was when I leaned of you two," he waved a hand at Hayley and Jared. "Caspian's 'great'plan. Kirus gave me this," he pulled it a pink mobile phone from his pocket, "he got it from the body of a girl that Jared..."

A wave of disgust crashed over Jared's face, Shannon placed an arm around his shoulder.

"then I got Kirus to place that note in your pocket. Sorry I could not be more explicit, but if Caspian ever found out it was me... Well I'm sure a lot of us would not be here right now. whatever you think of Kirus just remember he was good at the core, I think what he did hopefully reedems himself..."

"what did he do?" Jared asked.

"Saved our lives, especially the crazy Croatian here." Shannon pointed to Tomo before breifly explaining what had happened, for Corvus' sake too. "and then..." Shannon could not go further than when he was knocked unconscious.

"he was about to kill you before Leah went ninja on his arse and decapitated him" Abbie informed, smiling at Shannon's dumbfounded look

"He could have killed you, Leah... But you saved me..." He walked over and pulled her into a bear like hug, giving her a peck on the check as they parted. It was hard to say who was more flushed, Jared only exacerbated the matter by wolf whistling. Shannon coughed and mumbled a thankyou before scuttling over to thump his brother's arm playfully.

"hey, hey, hey! I'm delicate remember." Jared teased, "besides, you need to be nice to me considering you almost killed me... Oh my god Shannon I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that!" Jared was mortified as he looked at the immense hurt on Shannon's face that had also turned white as though he was about to pass out, "Shann?" He pulled his brother into a hug through which he hoped emitted a thousand apologies. "please know that I never meant that... I love you Shann, I know you would never do anything to hurt me..."

Shannon shook his head and smiled, "your mouth will get you into trouble one day Jared, you arse.. But I love you"

"well, now that we have that sorted," Corvus handed every body a mug of herbal tea. "you will all need to drink that, its good for shock"

"In that case can I have a barrel full?" Gerard laughed.

"actually, there are still a few things to be sorted out," Dustin pointed out, "Shannon is still a werewolf, I believe jared's a vampire, as are Gerard and Hayley."

Corvus chuckled, "Kirus told me you were a difficult one. Okay then, I was gonna suggest a rest, but lets get to business!"

 

XxX

 

Frank lay against the wall, panting hard as Ray applied pressure to a wound he had sustained on his arm. His face was grim as he looked around the cavern, the battle may have ceased but the space still echoed with the cries and death rattles of the bloody fight.

"what have we done, Ray?" He sobbed as his eyes raked over the bodies of their fallen warriors... teenagers whose friends kneeled over, their screams of grief shattered the hearts of the two men who felt the blame towering upon their sunken shoulders.


	13. Chapter 12: Early Sunsets Over L.A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly the end now, just the epilogue to go. Thankyou to who ever has read this all the way through :) It means a lot xx

"I wonder how the others are doing?" Mikey asked after a long sip from his mug and a stare out of the window.

"I'm sure they're fine... Maybe there wasn't much of a fight... They're probably all just sitting around waiting to hear from us." Gerard reassured his brother with a hand on his knee. A shadow of reluctant disagreement passed over Dustin's face, he had known Caspian well. The look, although passed the attentions of most - was detected by Corvus who returned a grim grimace to Dustin. He coughed, slapping his thighs.

"Right! We need to get back to business. Jared, Gerard and Hayley I should... SHOULD be able to revert you to human form. Dustin I'm sorry, but I think you've been this way for far to long to change you back." Dustin nodded. Corvus turned to Shannon, "and you are still a werewolf... But that's easily dealt with now we know that stuff works, you just have to drink it."

"What about all that knife stuff you did with Jared?" Tomo asked while the rest of the group looked confused. Corvus pointed to Jared's arm as a partial answer.

"Jared's condition was far too serious to wait for the liquid to enter his bloodstream, besides he wasn't in much of a state to drink anything."

Shannon laughed "No offence Jay, but rather you than me," he wearily glanced at the seeping wound dividing Jared's forearm and bicep.

Corvus resumed buzzing about, recreating the concoction that had just spared Jared's life. The group took the silence as a chance to become reacquainted with one another.

"Are you serious!? There are kids out there fighting the Den's creatures... What if one of them gets hurt or worse?" Jared's azure eyes bulged from their bruised sockets.

"They wanted to help, Jay"

"I know Shann, but they have families... People who care about them! They're underage! God, most of them aren't even old enough to drink... How do we explain it if something does happen, how do we live with it?"

"He has a point. Are we supposed to turn up to a hospital: 'sorry to bother you, but we have a few dozen children here who need a bit of patching up. Oh, and by the way a few of them might have been bitten by a werewolf'?" Gerard frowned.

"We'll just have to cross that bridge if and when we come to it" Mikey shrugged. Jared sighed, closing his eyes before turning his head to stare out of Corvus's window becoming entranced by Mira and his dancing mane, neither liquid, solid nor gas. Jared blinked before the corners of his pale, thin lips curled in a smile.

"Thank you, guys, all of you," he directed his face to Corvus, "I really would be dead if it wasn't for you"

"Because of course we all contemplated leaving you there, you daft bugger" Gerard chuckled as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, as if!" Tomo added, ruffling Jared's damp blood-encrusted hair.

"Well, you weren't so ready to believe me yesterday," Shannon grinned, earning a light punch from his bearded friend.

"True, but put yourself in my shoes. I was ready to admit you back into that hospital!"

Corvus turned to Shannon, a mug of a pungent brownish liquid in his hand.

"A warning, I'm sure it tastes like the inside of a year old, used coffin" he handed the mug to him.

Shannon grimaced at his words, "I really hope there isn't a good reason behind that..." he contemplated the mixture for a few seconds, praying that the mixture did not contain anything that had been dead for a full earth's orbit and before he could allow himself another second to evaluate the contents of the mug or how vile it was he screwed up his face in disgust before he threw it down his throat, retching when he had finished. "Bloody hell! What is in that?" He cried, handing the mug back.

"Probably best if the answer remains unknown to you, more importantly, let's just hope that it had worked."

"How will we know?" Abbie asked, Leah sighed causing Abbie to rethink her question, "Oh... Right, yeah... Just shove him outside..."

"And pray he doesn't eat the horse," Hayley added.

"Hey! Still in the room, guys," Shannon waved his arms above his head to emphasise the fact.

Corvus clapped his aged, mottled hands together, "and now for the vampires!"

"And how exactly do you do that?" Dustin asked, "In all my hundred years I haven't heard of a way to cure vampirism!!"

"Don't forget, a vast majority of that time was spent under the influence of The Den and Caspian's predecessors would not have been keen on curing it either!"

"How long will it take?" Jared asked, anxious to get back into the den and discover the fate of the others.

"Not too long, just give me a few minutes, oh, and I need a blood donor, human of course," Corvus flashed a grin in Tomo's direction. Tomo narrowed his eyes.

"Great," he muttered darkly.

"Don't worry, I just need a little prick."

Shannon glanced at Tomo, then at his brother before the Leto's collapsed in a fit of laughter.

"Tomo's your man then," Shannon wheezed, his hand covering his mouth as Jared clapped him on the shoulder in appreciation. Tomo rolled his eyes, but a twinkle sat in his sweet, burnt umber orbs.

"Well you've certainly recovered, and before you carry on may I remind you that neither of you would be here without me."

"Sorry, Tomes," it was good to see the toothy smile back on Jared's face as he spoke, his topaz eyes shining once more.

"Come here an' give me your hand then," Corvus inclined his head, Tomo sighed and walked to him, positioning his knuckles on Corvus's palm. The older man quickly ran a small blade across the pad of Tomo's index finger, a bead of scarlet instantaneously appeared in the knifes wake. Corvus massaged the slit to coax more blood out of its warm haven and into yet another alien cacophony of colored liquids, vegetation and god only knew what else. The mixture hissed as contact was made, the liquid effervesced and the colour faded from bog-brown to an almost pleasant pea green. "Hmm, it worked," Corvus raised his eyebrows and jutted his bottom lip in content surprise. He began to divide it into three eggcup sized glasses and passed each one in turn to Gerard, Hayley and Jared - who still sat on the table. Gerard scrutinised the glass beneath his nose "Ugh, any way of turning this to vodka?"

"Down in one, boys" Hayley grinned, the three chinked their glasses together before chucking the thick mixture into their mouths, ensuring it was granted as little contact with their taste buds as possible.

"Sweet holy mother of Lucifer, that is fucking disgusting" Gerard coughed.

Jared shrugged, "I thought it tasted better than vodka..."

"You, Leto, are one humanbeing that I will never understand".

"Let's hope I can now be classed as such".

"How'd ya feel?" Corvus asked, surveying them for any sign of change. Jared was about to shake his head - indicating he felt no different - when a bizarre warmth began to spread from his heart to his appendages. He shuddered at the sensation, but it was not unpleasant. Hayley and Gerard seemed to be experiencing the same for their eyes widened and they looked down at their bodies for signs of what was causing it.

"Like someone just injected some form of aphrodisiac into my bloodstream! Wow!" Gerard exclaimed.

"That's good, it means you're changing,"

"I dunno if I am just being ignorant or not, but they weren't how I imagine vampires to be. Sure they're a bit paler, but not bloodthirsty killers."

"Then stop modeling them on 'Dracula' or 'Twilight'... Fiction! Vampires can easily be blood thirst killers, and many are, all are in the first week as these three know. But, Jared, Gerard and Hayley had morals, they were made aware of Caspian's plan just in time. Any longer and they would have become more and more distant from theirselves, their previous life would've become a mere dream that haunted them, so pale it would have been easily disregarded as fantasy. Caspian indoctrinates young vampires, ensures they forget their human self. In my opinion, he was foolish allowing Shannon and Jared to meet. Had Jared been kept there longer then he would have looked in your eyes, Shannon, and not know you. Caspian never was much as a thinker though... In reality he should have known that his plan would never have worked." Corvus gave a small sigh and a shake of his head, "It's just a shame he had to corrupt Kirus too..."

"Wait a minute, what about Dustin?" Mikey asked

"Dustin was turned over a century ago and not by Caspian. Besides I have reason to believe that it is impossible to keep an unwilling person under control forever. Therefore, if any being in The Den truly disagrees with Caspian's actions, as Dustin and Kirus did, then they can - with enough willpower - smash the rosy glasses he forced them to wear, or the trance."

"Caspian had Kirus under a spell?" Hayley said.

"Why yes, undoubtedly he did. Kirus had a hard time breaking out. When he came to me he was in one hell of a state, said it was like waking up from being half asleep."

Shannon sucked in his cheeks and pursed his lips before asking: "So most of them in The Den actually didn't like nor agree with Caspian?"

"Well, most no, I guess not. But, like with anything some enjoy power and are not afraid by what it takes to gain it."

"We should go," Jared bit his bottom lip. How much damage had already been done? "Can't you communicate with them? Find out what has happened."

"We'd love to Jay, but in the rush to get here we have neither our torches nor the 'Walkie-Talkies'," Hayley shrugged. Jared sighed.

"We have Mira though," Leah pointed to the window where the glass simmered.

"Go, then, quickly!" Corvus waved his hand to the door.

"What the hell do we do though? With the creatures in The Den, I mean. We can't just leave them to run riot." Jared's eyebrow had knitted together.

"Well, The Den will need a leader... Someone who understands the importance of co-existence. I think I know just the person." Corvus smiled and inclined his head at Dustin.

"What, me?" He replied. "Are you serious?"

"Why not?" Corvus laughed. "You are well-respected Kirus told me, you'd be fair, responsible, compassionate, but firm. A good leader in short."

"It's a great idea," Hayley grinned. Dustin nibbled his bottom lip.

"Well, fuck it. Okay. I'll try."

"I feel like we should repay you somehow, for all you've done!"

"Oh, quiet Leto, it's fine, nice to have some company if the truth be told. That old thing over there just sleeps most of the time," the dog in question perked its ears at Corvus' statement and almost as if to defy hobbled over to Jared and licked his hand, who began to pet its head in response. The damp nose nuzzled his hand in reply, Jared giggled and massaged the side of the dog's head.

"Right, that's it then" Shannon exclaimed: "I'm getting you another dog, the least I could do for being such a shit brother!"

"What the fuck are you talking about? You risked your life to save me!"

"I should have realised something was wrong earlier, when you locked yourself in your room... I was scared to do anything because, well, I thought you were using again... Drugs, I mean."

"At least this way I don't have to go rehab or to some sort of help group: 'Hi, my name is Jared and I'm a vampire'"

"Used to be a vampire," Corvus corrected. Jared smiled.

"Thank you again!"

"Yeah, yeah, good! Now off with you. You have people to see to... Wait! Take this, just in case." He handed Mikey two vials containing the residual mixtures of the cure of werewolves and vampires.

"Thank you," he smiled.

"Your sure you don't want to come, we could get you a house easily!" Jared offered, sliding down from the table, causing Corvus to scoff.

"Thanks, but no offence, I don't do living indebted to people and I most certain do not want to live in your world. I live from this forest nothing else and certainly not from idiotic strips of green paper and one day you will finally realise are no more than that!"

Many Goodbyes were exchanged and even more 'thankyous' thrown around the room before the party had left the shack and walked in an orbit around the azure sun that was Mira. Shannon insisted that Jared sat upon the animals back just in case the walking damaged him

"I agree with what he said you know, about us all being ruled by greed, money and a materialistic lifestyle." Jared mused.

"Oh, here he goes... Half and hour ago he was at deaths door and now he wants to change the world." Shannon shook his head.

"You, know, Jay... If it helps the guy did scoff at your vegetarianism, well... Vegan-ism, but I didn't mention that...something about 'defying nature'," Tomo braced himself for Jared's reply

"What! What does he know? Idiot..." Jared huffed, muttering obscenities under his breath as they walked. No one had the guts to remind him that the guy had just saved him life. They remained silence until his flame burned it's self out.

The rain clouds had dissolved into the night sky leaving the glow of the moon to bath them in its pale light. Shannon, to everybody's relief, remained human. The moon was low in the sky, crippled by age. The rein of the lunar being was drawing to a close. By the time they had reached the cave mouth the distant cry of birds were beginning to herald the arrival of a new day.

"Urgh..." Abbie gave a disgruntled moan as the dingy tunnels swallowed the natural light and the dank, damp smell returned. Thankfully, Mira's glowing form provided light as no other source was available. The group passed the bodies of Caspian and Kirus inhaled a small breath of revulsion and melancholy, respectively.

"We can't just leave them here, can we?" Hayley bit here bottom lip.

"No..." Dustin replied softly. "Not Kirus, at the very least, he deserves a burial. As for Caspian... I'm sure the creatures are in need of a feast."

"But, they were with Caspian, admired him, trusted him! Surely they aren't gonna just turn around and eat him..." Shannon frowned.

"I think... Most of them feared him more than anything, it was, after all, a dictatorship. Like Corvus said. There was no choice but to follow him, cheer him, obey him. Now that the fist has become unclenched they may realise how misguided Caspian was." Dustin mused, "It was the same for me, after all. He indoctrinated me with talk of repression and injustice and I believe that it was best for warfare to unleash... Until I discovered what Caspian was doing with experiments and realised he was no different from any human, had no more respect for us than they did. He just wanted power!"

"So, you think they will accept you?" Jared asked, he had only briefly glanced at both bodies before turning his gaze to the iridescent hairs on Mira's neck for the sight caused his mind to surge with memories of pain and fear.

"I'm not sure... I think, we should just keep going for now and cross those bridges later."

As they moved deeper there was something far more dense than the darkness that fell upon them; silence. Not the silence that inhabited the caves previously. This was thicker, far thicker.

 

***

 

The living moved from person to person, comforting them, giving any aid to wounds they could - thankfully Tomo had the initiative to give Ray a basic first aid kit. Ray was applying a bandage to the arm of a 17 year old girl which had been grazed by the teeth of a werewolf, when he sharply lifted his head.

"Do you hear that?" 

"What?" The girl, Martha, replied.

"Footsteps... and -"

"Is that a horse?" Frank called from the opposite end of the Cavern.

Ray gasped at his words, "The Unicorn! It's them!"

***

 

"I just heard Frank!" Mikey cried as he ran forwards, Gerard quickly broke into a run after Mikey. The rest following suite to pursue them. Jared was nearly thrown over Mira's neck as he lurched into a canter. 

It took seconds for the cavern to be revealed to them and the horrors it housed. Jared crashed to the ground after slipping off Mira's back and threw himself to the nearest wounded.

"Anyone who has been bitten or scratched by a Vampire or Werewolf needs to be treated immediately, we have an antidote so you will be fine." Tomo reassured, Ray beckoned him over to Martha and himself. Unscrewing one of the vials that Corvus gave him he tipped it above the girls mouth just enough to allow a mouth full to trickle in. She muttered a thank you after spluttering from the mixture. 

The next ten minutes or so were spent tending to the wounded, checking everyone was reasonably okay. The worst job was yet to come.

Jared collapsed against the wall after completing a quick count. He kneaded his sinuses, his fingers lubricated by a quiet trickle of tears. "20 dead..."

Shannon walked over and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We need help. Phone the emergency services!"

"What are we gonna say, the police will want to know how and why so many teenagers have died and why on earth we were there?" Ray asked, exasperated. 

"We tell the truth, or as close to it as we can without exposing the Creatures. Jared, Gerard and Hayley were kidnapped by some psycho gang and when Shannon did not return after trying to rescue them we insisted on going to rescue them and so did these brave people, but the gang was ruthless and got away without a trace." Tomo replied. 

"But, they'll search The Den." Ray protested.

"Then... The fight didn't happen here. We move everybody outside, hide the entrance." Tomo gestured out to what presumably was the outside world.

"What, everybody?" asked, quickly glancing at a fallen boy nearby. Tomo licked his lips

"Yes"

"Humans only." Dustin added. "We'll deal with the rest."

It took half and hour for the able-bodied to move the injured and dead out into the dawn, past the shadow of The Den, where two stood waiting; Ray had called his friends on the final walk through the gloomy passageways. Kirus' body had been moved too, Mikey and Gerard were just setting it down on the dusty scrub.

Most of the group had collapsed to the ground a medley of overwhelming emotions whirling inside them. Jared clutched his side, wincing slightly as he slumped down against a great dirty-brown boulder protruding from the floor.

"Jay?" Shannon questioned his well-being as he knelt down next to Jared.

"Fine, I'm fine. It just hurts as bit." He whimpered as he moved the hand that was clutched over the bloodied and stained bandage. Blood had seeped through the mesh-like fibers and coated Jared's hand.

"Shit" Shannon exhaled.

"We should call them now." Hayley suggested, prompting Lilly to extract her mobile and offered it to her, "Thank you, but I can't call I have not a clue what to say."

"Without sounding awful, we need to do a bit of acting, I mean we can hardly sound calm - not that we are -as if the 'gang' have only just left. The obvious choice, but-" Tomo simply tilted his head in a resigned manner towards his bleeding friend. "- Mikey, you should do it!" The blonde man nodded and took the phone from Lilly's hand. Pausing, Mikey began to contemplate what he was about to way. He dialed '911' closed his eyes and changed his breathing to rapid and shallow to work himself up before pressing the call button. There was a response almost immediately, a clam feminine voice instructed:

"Please state your name and which emergency service you require."

"M-Micheal Way. Oh God... God, I don't know. It's awful! Just awful and we don't know what to do...Help, please" What Mikey said was exactly how each and every living person there felt, but were unable to voice it for fear of falling apart.

"Keep, calm sir. Can you tell me what has happened?"

"There's been a fight, a massive fight, a gang - they've got away now, but people are dead, teenagers! Jared Leto is really hurt, he was bitten by a large dog." Mikey shook his head wildly and uncertainly at the people surrounding him as the situation forced him to concoct convincing white lies under immense pressure.

"Where are you?"

"Up Holywood Hill, we are right by the sign now."

"Okay, and can you give me an idea of how many are involved?"

"Umm, 20 have... Died and about 15 more are badly wounded."

Silence.

"I'm dispatching the teams now. Can you explain more what has happened please, Jared Leto has been reported missing?"

"His brother Shannon Leto was contacted and told that Jared, Gerard Way - my brother - and Hayley Williams were being held hostage by them. He was told to go and not contact anybody... Or they would... Die. When he didn't come back Tomo Milicevic decided to get help and loads of people turned up... We had no idea what was going on or what would happen. We were ambushed. They were just so brutal, set a load of dogs on us and left without a trace."

"Thank you, Micheal. They should be with you in about 15 minutes, just stay where you are."

Mikey thanked her and hung up. He exhaled loudly. "That was one of the hardest things I have ever done" He laughed humorlessly. "They are never going to believe this whilst the crazy-ass Vampires and Gryffins and Werewolves have been omitted."

"We've been as honest as we can, great mistakes were made today and at a horrific cost, but what else could we do? We could not go to the police or anyone" A minuet smile stretched Tomo's lips.

"Yeah, if it wasn't so grim I would be freaking out about the fact that there is a freaking unicorn right infront of me!"

"Oh, speaking of that, Tomo, there's a massive bear-thing in there. Said he wanted to see you in private" Ray ginned, winking suggestively. Tomo flipped him the bird before very strongly telling him where to go. A calm ripple of laughter dissipated through the mass of people.

After a few minutes they began to talk amongst themselves, stories where told so that the night's events were clear to everyone. A blow by blow account of the battle was given by Ray. The team that had been outside - 'Team Stripe' - had joined the other's in The Den not long after the fight had started.

The operator had been correct. At quarter to five on a June morning, which to most was like any other, a medley of ambulances and police vehicles arrived at the scene. They began work immediately, tending to the injured and moving the dead to the back of ambulances. The police had a thousand questions each of which was answered as realistically and honestly as possible, except of course there being no mention of Caspian or vampires or werewolves or any other Mythical Being. Mira had, thankfully, bolted into the forest just five minutes before they arrived, leaving Mikey stroking the air where his neck had been. A couple of paramedics where currently tending to Jared, morphine had been injected into his bloodstream and his wound unbandaged and was now being examined. Apparently it was the worst dog bite the paramedics had ever come across.

Most of the wounded could be treated - if they already hadn't been in The Den - on the scene and were deemed fit to go after individual questioning about why they were even there in the first place. However, one 18 year old boy had broken his leg so severely that he would require and operation. After ten minutes Jared and the boy, Tristen, were both on gurneys and being wheeled on to separate Ambulances. Shannon instinctively, immediately followed Jared. A man tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a pair of shorts and baggy t-shirt. He was flummoxed until he looked down and with great embarrassed and surprise he realised he was still wearing nothing but Leah's jacket. He grabbed the clothes thankfully and pulled them on, doing his best to conserve his dignity, or whatever remained. He shot an incredulous look at Tomo who was walking towards him.

"Didn't you think to tell me I have been running around practically naked the past few hours?"

"Well, you've just been so distracted with Jared we thought it would be cruel to remind you, Jared has found it amusing too."

"Great." Shannon muttered, "So when we were with Corvus and in The Den everyone made a silent pact to keep me oblivious?"

"It was Jared's idea. Besides, you could have just looked down, we can't all be held completely responsible!"

Shannon huffed, "I'm going with Jared, stay here, make sure everyone is OK and get everyone who doesn't go home back to our house. I'll let you know what we're doing when we get to the Hospital, Jared might need an operation..."

"Crap, but he'll be fine. Go, before they leave" Tomo smiled as he indicated to the Ambulance. Shannon thanked him, everyone, waved and then followed his brother and the medics. The medical vehicles took off - blue lights and sirens blaring.

The police insisted on returning every underage person to their guardians personally - that took up five full Police vans. The remaining 27 where to return, in the trucks, to the Leto household. People began milling this way and that guided by friends of officers. A sixteen-year old girl was sobbing in the arms of Ray. Her friend had been killed in the battle and it had been Ray who had tried to save her. It took a whole five minutes to coax her into the back of a van.

"You coming?"

Tomo looked around to see Frank addressing him.

"Go on ahead to Shannon's home, make sure everyone back there is all right, get them home! I'll make my own way back, there are some things I need to do." Tomo said. Frank nodded in reply, walked over to and entered the first of the deep orange trucks where anyone over 18 was found.

Every vehicle pulled away leaving Tomo alone and breathing in the dust particles thrown in the air by the moving machines. Tomo closed his eyes and just stood for a moment allowing the dawn breeze to rustle his clothes and soothe his skin. He reached for his mobile and called the one person who he now wanted to talk to, not a want, but a need an aching, burning need that had consumed him.

"Vicky,"

"Tomo... Oh my God I have been so worried about you! Where the hell have you been?" His wife replied.

Tomo raked back his hair and laughed, "It is a long story. I'm up Hollywood hill, could you come and get me?"

"What's happened?"

"It's fine, I'll explain soon. Don't worry. And Vicky, I love you,"

"I love you too you big 'MoFo'. I'll be with you as soon as I can. And can I just say you are so dead for disappearing like that,"

"I know, but we've found Jared and Hayley and Gerard, so that's good." There was a slightly dark tone to his voice, yes that aspect of the night's events was good, but he had omitted several others that were plain horrific. This went unnoticed by Vicki.

"That is brilliant. I'll see you soon sweetheart,"

Tomo sent his love, thanks and goodbye to her before ending the call.

Tomo turning from suspicion he was being watched, this was confirmed as Dustin appeared from behind him.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

It took a moment for Tomo to register that Dustin was looking at the sunrise. Yes, it was beautiful.

"I've explained to them - in The Den - about what has happened. Of Kirus and Corvus and how the actions of tonight and of Caspian should never be repeated. The majority seemed in agreement, which is good. And they've elected me the new leader," Dustin's last sentence was sheepish.

Tomo smiled, "That's brilliant," His brow knitted for a moment, "What about those who don't agree, won't they leave and run amok?"

"They could, but that is unlikely for they would be without security and protection, which is what The Den provides. A lot of awful thing happened tonight, innocent died, but ultimately lessons were learned. The events will circulate underground throughout the world. Hopefully, the main lesson that will come is that both sides will sustain major losses if conflicts continue. Humans and Beings cannot come to heads, they just need to learn to co-exist and whether that occurs through ignorance or tolerance it doesn't matter as long as peace is kept."

"And do you think it will stay like that?"

"I hope so." Dustin smiled and placed a hand on Tomo's shoulder, "I am glad Jared made it in the end, he is a good man. He didn't half give me a scare though, I thought he was a 'goner' for sure. Where is he now?"

Tomo chuckled, "At the nearest Hospital, he may need an operation - a butt-load of stitches at the very least -but he is strong, not even that he is fucking invincible. He will be fine."

"Good," Dustin turned to leave, "Thank you for your help tonight. Caspian would have undoubtedly killed me had you not intervened."

"You're very welcome. And good luck!"

Dustin nodded and walked away with a farewell wave. Tomo watched The Den's darkness swallow him whole.

He turned as the roar of an engine and beeping of a car horn. He turned just in time to see Vicky's small form bolt towards him and caught her just him time to draw into a large hug and swung her around, her legs off the ground and clinging to his hips.

They shared a passionate kiss.

"I've missed you so much" Vicky exclaimed as she drew away for breath.

"I know, me too." Tomo replied as he set her down, but still clung onto her hand. "Come on, we have to go and see Jared."

"Where is he?" Vicky asked as they made their way to her car.

"Hospital."

"What, is he OK?!"

"He's fine, better than he was two hours ago that's for sure." Tomo chuckled as he opened the passenger door for her. This was going to be a long drive.

The nighttime sky was bleeding onto the horizon as the little car pulled away and juddered down the mountain path. The newborn sun was a piercing wound from which blood seeped out in radiant reds, oranges and pinks. As the wound aged the blood dispersed and became diluted in colour, fading into the cerulean sky. As the epicenter of colour rose higher and higher the transition between night and day became more complete until the sun was left as a burning, xanthic orb framed in cobalt.


	14. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End Note: Wow, I can not actually believe that this is done! July 24th 2011 was when I first uploaded the prologue on DeviantART- yep, that shows how much of an awesome procrastinator I am xD!!!
> 
> Well, for anyone who has had the patience to read this weird little thing all the way through then thank you it really means a lot! Really, this whole thing just reminds me so much of my best friend Leah, the amount of times we spent our frees down 'The Grove hotel' and I was writing this is my book... And then I couldn't be bothered so Leah would force me to write XD and give me ideas... most importantly point out the mahoosive plot holes... Yeah there are still some but I'll let you have fun spotting them XDD 
> 
> Oh, and this would still not be done if it wasn't for her as she wrote the first bit of this epilogue, so I take absolutely no credit for this following bit as it is Leah's:
> 
> _"No! Please! Nooooo!!" Jared screamed. "Please... not my brother... not again!" Shannon screamed. Jared could not see his brother, but his voice rang out clearly around him. Shannon's voice was violently cut off by a dark gurgling sound, followed by Caspian's evil cackling.  
>  "Jared... It's not real..." Tomo's voice was a whisper that echoed in Jared's ears.  
> "Why.... Why are you doing this?" Jared sobbed, not quite believing that Caspian had returned from the grave to finish the job. Shadows were wrapped around him, carving ethereal faces that warped and twisted in front of him... Caspian's decapitated head moved beyond the corners of his eyes' line of sight, the same maniacal laughter echoing around him. It warped into Shannon's face that stared vacantly at the floor, blood oozing out of his mouth.  
> "Jared, this is not real..." Tomo's voice lingered from within the shadows once again.  
> "You... You're dead! How can you be..." Caspian's laughter returned to fizzle out so that Shannon's dying gurgle could be heard once more.  
> "Jared! Wake up!," with the last desperate cry from Tomo, Jared's eyes flicked open to stare into his friend's dark brown eyes,"Jared, it was only a nightmare..." Tomo reassured his friend as he saw him blink and fearfully look around him.  
> "Caspian?," he whispered,"...Shannon!" he all but leapt out of bed.  
> "Woah... Jared! Calm down!," Tomo put a comforting hand on his friend's arm, trying to make him relax,"Shannon's fine, you were only having a nightmare..." Jared collapsed against his friend in defeat.  
> "Thank God for that... Tomo, it was horrible... Caspian's head was... and Shannon..." Jared groaned, his face in his hands.  
> "It's all over now, Jared. It was all over months ago..." Tomo consoled._
> 
>  
> 
> Yeah, so this is the first thing that I have actually continued with and finished... It sucks, I know, but I like it XD

_"No! Please! Nooooo!!" Jared screamed. "Please... not my brother... not again!" Shannon screamed. Jared could not see his brother, but his voice rang out clearly around him. Shannon's voice was violently cut off by a dark gurgling sound, followed by Caspian's evil cackling._

_"Jared... It's not real..." Tomo's voice was a whisper that echoed in Jared's ears._

_"Why.... Why are you doing this?" Jared sobbed, not quite believing that Caspian had returned from the grave to finish the job. Shadows were wrapped around him, carving ethereal faces that warped and twisted in front of him... Caspian's decapitated head moved beyond the corners of his eyes' line of sight, the same maniacal laughter echoing around him. It warped into Shannon's face that stared vacantly at the floor, blood oozing out of his mouth._

_"Jared, this is not real..." Tomo's voice lingered from within the shadows once again._

_"You... You're dead! How can you be..." Caspian's laughter returned to fizzle out so that Shannon's dying gurgle could be heard once more._

 

"Jared! Wake up!," with the last desperate cry from Tomo, Jared's eyes flicked open to stare into his friend's dark brown eyes,"Jared, it was only a nightmare..." Tomo reassured his friend as he saw him blink and fearfully look around him.

 

"Caspian?," he whispered,"...Shannon!" he all but leapt out of bed.

 

"Woah... Jared! Calm down!," Tomo put a comforting hand on his friend's arm, trying to make him relax,"Shannon's fine, you were only having a nightmare..." Jared collapsed against his friend in defeat.

 

"Thank God for that... Tomo, it was horrible... Caspian's head was... and Shannon..." Jared groaned, his face in his hands.

 

"It's all over now, Jared. It was all over months ago..." Tomo consoled.

 

Shannon burst into the room.

 

"what's happened? I heard screaming," Shannon only had to look at the scene for a second to understand. "He's gone Jay, he's never coming back! Your safe, I'm safe, we're all safe." He took his little brother into his arms. 

 

"I know..." Jared's voice was soft, "but no matter how many times I tell myself that I still have that dream. It's just so real." 

 

Jared was looking up at Shannon, a small tear ran down his cheek, but before it could reach his chin Shannon brushed it away with his thumb.

 

"Come on. Let's head downstairs." Shannon tapped Jared's shoulder as he stood up and left the room, two fellow Martians close behind. 

 

Two hours of sipping hot drinks by the roaring fire in the Leto's living room and discussing everything from past tour moments to the new album left the three men on the verge of sleep. Tomo, who was staying over for the week to work on 'This Is Four', was first to retire to the spare room. Leaving the two brothers in the room, silent but for the spitting and crackling of firewood.

 

"Are you sure you're OK?" Shannon asked, watching his brother's face as fire light danced across and caught his irises, setting them alight like the northern lights. Jared turned and drank down his brother's concerned expression, he smiled and nodded.

 

"I'm fine. Really Shann," He yawned, "Just tired." Jared laughed before bidding his brother good-night, existing the room and climbing the stairs. 

 

Five minutes later Jared was lying cocooned in his duvet. 

 

He always slept with curtains thrown wide and window open, the cool night air, soft lights and hum of the city help to lull him into sleep, and when sleep would refuse to come he would resort to staring at the stars. On this night, however, Jared lay awake, his mind spinning far too quickly to allow sleep to envelope him, he turned over to face the outside world. There was a full moon with a peppering of pale stars surrounding it, dimmed by the thousands of lights of Los Angeles stealing their show. 

 

Jared's mind wandered to a few months previous, when they had returned from The Den for the final time. 

 

x-x-x

 

He had been awake now for a few hours. The pain in his side was still there, but had dulled considerably thanks to the drugs. Jared had been in surgery for the best part of two hours while the surgeons worked to repair the bloody mess that a werewolf causes, of course they were simply under the impression that it had been a large, very aggressive dog. 

 

Gerard and the gang were back at the Leto's house tying up frayed ends, for one, getting everyone home. Leaving Shannon and Jared, the latter was currently slouched half under the plastic hospital sheets, his side heavily bandaged at the hospital

 

"Urgh, why can't I leave this place?"

 

"You know why, incase that wound of yours opens up in the night and you bleed to death."

 

"Pfft," Jared waved his hand in a sarcastic mannor, "I'll take the risk."

 

Shannon shook his head, he would have thought Jared would be more serious considering how close to dying he had come that night. He shuddered at the thought and wrenched his mind back to his brother, who was currently isnpecting the I.V tubing connected to his arm.

 

"Don't play with it! Honestly how old are you?"

 

Tomo laughed as he entered the private room with four take-away coffee cups and Vicky.

 

"Well, he looks 21 and acts 5, lets split the difference and go with 12."

 

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, this is abuse, you know... And I've just been under the knife!"

 

"Yes, you poor thing, everyone is so cruel to you," Tomo added as he handed Jared his milK-free coffee.

 

*

Tomo and Vicki stayed until the end of visiting hours and were forced to retire to the Leto's house to help Hayley and the MCR boys. Shannon, of course, refused to leave Jared's side, instead resorted to a night in the chair beside Jared's bed. Not that the discomfort troubled Shannon, who slept like a newborn baby after the fortnigt he had had. That was more than could be said for Jared. Every hour his pulse was taken and wound inspected. He was a naturally light sleeper, exacerbated by his insomnia, so he spent half of the night listening to the diluted rush of the hospital, and watching the E.C.G macheine's representation of his heart beating. He amused himself with altering its speed by slowing or quickening his breathing

 

Somtimes he just lay there and watched his brother lost in the realm of sleep, his eyelids fluttering as his eyes moved behind them. Jared gave a soft giggle at the way his moustache moved as his breath rolled over it. Jared wondered how much anxiety he had caused his big brother over the fortnight and where he would be now without him; dead, for sure. It was comforting to finally see Shannon at peace. Jared lay down on his plastic pillow and settled into an hour long sleep as he listened to a pair of footsteps grow fainter as they clacked along the hallway.

 

***

 

_It was dark, almost pitch black except for the swirling of smoke. There were strange echoes that reverberated around this timeless place. Screams and manic laughter ricocheting of the mist. Shadows danced before his disembodied form. The ethereal figures flitted in front of his vision, distorting themselves as though passing through the mirrors of a fun-house._

_His senses had gone hay-wire, if there at all. His ability to taste and touch and smell were gone. Maybe, he was encased in a fish-bowl, his hearing seemed akin to that of when underwater, and that would explain the distorted humanoid shapes and their grotesque dance. He was not aware of much anymore, his world diluted, but he knew with certainty he was no longer in the hospital._

_One of the shadows floated towards his conscious being. It gradually became sharper as though it were a specimen under a microscope being brought into focus. He could make out a teenage girl. He would have gasped, if he had a solid form in which to do that with. He recognised her face, the long platted-brown hair, the congealed blood on her abdomen. She was one of the Den's casualties. Her mouth opened and her voice followed a few seconds later, echoed and disjointed like that of a very old, damaged film._

_"You did this."_

_Jared could not reply. He was immobile._

_"It's all your fault."_

_The words were left to rot in the air long after her mouth had ceased movement and then she just dissipated into the ether. Another substance-less effigy took its place. A boy, this time, no older than twenty._

_"I died for you." His voice had the same effect placed upon it. As though edited with time delay and reverb. Jared tried to shout out, tell it to go away, to leave him alone. It was to no avail._

_Once again, another opaque being wavered into existence._

_"You could have stopped it, Jared, I would still be alive if it wasn't for you._

_And another._

_"If only you hadn't escaped that night! I would still be with my family!" More and more piled up on him, clouding his reality. He screamed and was relieved to discover he could. The world blurred at the edges as Caspian's manic laughter rang out over the din of the dead. A thick smog was landing over his surroundings, he felt as though somebody was dragging him away._

_"Jared!"_

_"JARED!"_

 

He was thrown back to himself, emerging from the poisoned lake of his nightmare, dripping wet, choking and shaking. Someone gently stroked his forehead, telling him everything was going to be okay. 

 

It took a minute of slow breathing for Jared to calm down and stop the gently flow of tears. He seemed to come around and notice his surroundings.

 

"Jay...?" Shannon was asking if he was okay. 

 

Jared nodded, "Just a dream... I'm... Fine."

 

The staff checked his pulse, pupil dilation and temperature

 

"You have had a traumatic experience, Mr Leto, it is quite normal for vivid and unpleasant flashbacks to occur. If they persist we could refer you to a councilor. Otherwise, I'm afraid there is nothing you can do but sit them out. You are a fighter though so I am sure that you will be fine." 

 

Jared bid farewell and a thank you to the doctor as he left the room. The nurses soon followed after ensuring that they would okay to be left.

 

"Jared?!" This was a demand for the truth from his younger brother.

 

Jared molded his hands together and chewed his cheek, "I could see them, Shann, they spoke to me."

 

"Who?"

 

"T-the people that d-died... For me."

 

"Jared." Shannon softened his voice as understanding occured, "It is not your fault. Oh, god, Jay you haven't been thinking that, have you?"

 

"But they did! They were there because of me!"

 

"- and Hayley and Gerard! They chose to help! They wanted to! Please don't believe that it was your fault. Besides, imagine what would have happened if Caspian had his way!" Shannon placed his palm across Jared's knee. "Come on, you can't be so hard on yourself.

 

Jared took a deep, shaky breath to steady himself and gave the faintest of smiles. "Thank you, Shann, for everything."

 

It was only 5.00am, Shannon returned for another 3 hours of sleep. Jared was far too restless and a little too afraid to go back to sleep. He played little games in his head - singing song lyrics, trying to say words backwards and recalling tour dates and locations - to pass the time, not that he did that well. Song lyrics he was mostly fine with and it was fun to reverse words, but on the tours he drew a blank for they all amalgamated themselves into one pulsating, electric mass of energy and ecstasy.

 

***

 

Jared had been discharged under the provision of plenty of bed rest and was prohibited from any strenuous activity which included walking, he was to be in a wheelchair until deemed fit to progress to crutches. 

 

The two brothers were back in their own, rather full house. even though by now those who fought or stayed in the house had left, the head count still stood at; Jared, Shannon, Tomo, Vicky, Hayley, Gerard, Mikey, Frank, Ray, Leah and Abbie. The latter two had decided to stay in L.A for a few more days. They crowded around the dining room table, eating a mountain of pasta and roasted vegetables cooked by Tomo - Jared just had the veg. Vicki was now fully aware of everything that had happened, she had been sceptical at first, but the sincerity of those who recited the tale brought her around.

 

The 'riot' had made headline news, especially the return of the missing musicians. No-one gave interviews and the details were sketchy so, thankfully, the report was superficial. 

 

Everybody was simply glad for the luxury of relief, that it was over. It had been a further few hours - it was now 9.00pm - the gang were crowded around the Leto's T.V watching re-runs of 'Friends' and eating take-away food stuffs.

 

Abbie suddenly looked around, confusion etched on her face.

 

"Where the hell is Leah... I though she was right next to me and Sha - Wait! - where is Shannon?"

 

"How long have they been gone?" Tomo wondered.

 

"I didn't see them leave." Jared shook his head and looked around to everyone else in the room, who in turn, copied his action.

 

"Maybe they just went to the toilet?" Mikey shrugged.

 

"Together." Gerard gave a sly grin and wolf-whistled. Ray and Frank laughed and playfully elbowed each other's side.

 

"Looks like your brother is getting some," Frank ruffled Jared's hair. 

 

"Hey!" Jared and Abbie scolded in unison. Hayley raised an eyebrow.

 

"Don't tell me you can't see that they have a thing for each other!?"

 

"Err, well, I mean," Abbie giggled. "Let's go an' find them!"

 

"That's a bit pervy." Ray snorted.

 

"Oh, for god's sake don't be so childish. They're only talking... Or something." Mikey rolled his eyes.

 

Abbie stood up and left the room, the rest followed with Mikey and Jared at the back, slightly reluctant.

 

Slowly, the creeping party opened every door in the house, revealing nothing. All, except the small cupboard under the stairs that housed the fuse box. 

 

Gerard was first to reach the handle, he grinned and winked to the other's before slowly opening the door. 

 

There was a small shriek of surprise and a clatter as two figures were revealed, entwined in each other, but clothed - to the relief of those on the other side of the threshhold - and had obliviously been engaged in a very passionate kiss a few moments previous. Shannon had lept back against the wall and Leah was standing aghast with a mop entangle in her hair, she blushed violently, they both did.

 

"Sorry, did we interrupt something?" Gerard blinked innocently. A fit of giggles erupted from the onlookers, Abbie was grinning from ear to ear at Leah, who smiled back and jokingly told her friend to 'shut up'. "Well, we'll just allow you to continue, 7 minutes of Heaven, guys!" Gerard slammed the door and leaned against it.

 

"Hey, Gerard, don't be a bastard. Let us out!" Shannon thumped the door.

 

"Na-ah, 6 more minutes, come on, as you were before we rudely opened the door... I can't hear anything going on, hurry up!"

 

"GERARD!" That was a combination of Shannon and Leah's exasperated voices. 

 

"Okay, let's stop this now." Jared herded Gerard away from the door and opened it, they practically fell out.

 

Jared folded his arms and put on a face of mock anger, "Would you two care to explain what was going on?" Shannon and Leah looked at each other an laughed. Shannon dodged the subject as he looked down at his brother.

 

"Hey, I'm finally taller that you!" 

 

"Ha, ha, ha, hilarious, when I get on crutches I will beat you with them."

 

"And then I'd just take them off you..." They both laughed, everyone did, it wasn't even that funny but the laughter escalated until it was simply to counteract the horror of the past week and the pure relief that it was over. Jared was first to stop as his side started to hurt. Shannon stooped down to check he was okay. There was a silent, unanimous decision to migrate outside and watch the setting sun, Shannon wheeled Jared out onto the decking.

 

"You, know" Tomo turned to Jared, "I never really believed in fate or anything, but I thought that Corvus would save you."

 

"Why?" 

 

"His name, it means crow, which was supposedly the sacred bird of Apollo... The son of the Goddess-"

 

"-Leto..." Jared finished, Tomo nodded. Jared smiled. "That's strang-" His mouth opened in horror as he looked around the garden to see a small shriveled tree stump. "Where's my tree!" He demanded.

 

"Ah, well. I did try to warn her."

 

"Who?! Who did it?"

 

Leah coughed, "Um, well... We needed staked for the vampires, and I kind of needed wood... I didn't know the tree was, er, special or anything."

 

Jared blinked, "You killed Bruce the spruce..." Jared began to laugh, but stiffled in for his performance, "That was the only thing that I have ever loved like a child," a fake tear fell down his face, "My poor, defenceless baby, killed in cold blood... I'm gonna give you three seconds to run." 

 

Leah laughed as she pelted through the house, followed by Jared who was giggling. They chased each other out of the house and into the street, Leah tactically took the up hill route and Jared cursed as he span the wheels at double speed to try and catch up. The party followed, laughing with every step as the followed the silhouettes of Leah and Jared into the sunset. Jared finally caught her as they entered the flat and began tickling her, she squirmed and feigned screaming in agony as Shannon ran towards them to 'rescue' her. He lifted her easily and they kissed again, earning groans of disgust from everyone else. 

 

It didn't take long for them to reach Santa Monica pier, the lights of the Ferris wheel illuminating the world in its cacophony of colours which rivalled a bird of paradise's. The sun was just dipping into the sea, the gull squawking at each other as they dipped and dived. The group took each others shoulders into their arms as they simply watched the onset of night and the peace it brought as another chapter was laid to rest.

 

***

 

Jared turned in his bed, feeling sleep finally coming for him as he returned to the present. Yes, awful things had happened, but he wasn't going to allow himself to dwell on that. It would be hard, that he knew and he was sure these nightmares would continue to haunt him, but he would keep on fighting. Life is just too sort, after all. 

 

As he closed his eyes he smiled and allowed sweet dreams of the tour they were about to embark on in just a few months time carry him away.


End file.
